EX  L1BRIS 


ANCIENT  HAWAIIAN  CANOE. 


STEAMER  MARIPOSA,  PLYING  BETWEEN  SAN  FRANCISCO,  HONOLULU, 
SAMOA,  AUCKLAND,  AND  SYDNEY. 


GONTRNTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Pacific  Ocean,  its  Islands  and  Peoples PAGE    13 

CHAPTER  II. 

Uncivilizing  Influences  from  Civilized  Countries 30 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  Origin  of  Christian  Missions  in  the  Pacific 55 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Society  Islands 65 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Austral  Islands 105 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Pearl  Islands 116 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Hawaiian  Islands 125 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Marquesas  Islands 215 

CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Hervey  Islands 252 

CHAPTER  X. 

Samoa 274 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Micronesia 306 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Tonga  -._ — _ _ _._ 343 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

New  Zealand 353 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Fiji  Islands _  390 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Melanesia 408 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Pitcairn  and  Norfolk  Islands 435 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Future  of  the  Pacific  Ocean ___  461 


Appendix  A.    The  Ancient  Polynesians 485 

"          B.    Languages  of  the  Pacific  Islands 501 

"          C.     Names  of  Missionaries 504 

"          D.     European  Appropriations ._ 514 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Ancient  Hawaiian  Canoe;  Steamer  Mariposa PAGE      3 

Map  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands 7 

Cook's  Bay  in  Moorea,  Society  Islands 15 

Vaitapiha  Valley  in  Tahiti 19 

Samoan  Girls  making  Kava 23 

Coast  Scene  on  Upolu,  Samoan  Islands ._    35 

Waterfall  in  Tahiti- — __ 41 

Samoan  Dancers 45 

Vegetation  in  Tahiti 53 

River  in  Tahiti 57 

Map  of  the  Society  Islands 63 

Papeete,  Capital  of  the  Society  Islands 69 

Haapiti,  Isle  Moorea 75 

Mount  Diademe,  Tahiti —    79 

Tahitian  War  Canoe -     85 

Otu,  King  of  Tahiti;  Ceding  Matavai  to  the  Mission 89 

A  Tahitian __ , 97 

Tahitian  Belles - 103 

The  Broom  Road,  Tahiti _—  117 

Madam  Pele,  and  Vegetation  on  a  Lava  Flow 123 

Hawaiian  Heathen  Temple;   Kawaiahao  Cl.urch,  Honolulu—  129 

Scene  in  lao  Valley,  Maui,  Hawaiian  Islands — -  133 

Ancient  Hawaiian  Hut ;    Residence  of  Keelikolani 137 

Lava  Cataract - -   143 

Crater  of  Kilauea  in  1840;    Lake  Kilauea  in  1894 147 

Rainbow  Falls  at  Hilo,  Hawaii 151 

Hawaiian  Woman 157 

Papaya  Trees,  Hawaiian  Islands 163 

Traveller's  Palm —   169 

Kaumakapili  Church  ;   Rev.  J.  Waiamau - 175 

Hawaiian  Monarchs 179 

lolani  Palace.— —  191 

Queen  Emma 195 

Kamehameha  School ;   Mrs.  Puahi  Bishop  _ 201 

The  Union  Church  at  Honolulu. —  205 


10  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

President  Dole  Proclaiming  the  Hawaiian  Republic 209 

Map  of  the  Marquesas  Islands 213 

Breadfruit  Tree 219 

President  Dole  and  his  Cabinet _~ 227 

Royal  Palms  at  Honolulu 235 

Heathen  Village  and  Christian  Village  at  Aitutahi 253 

Heathen  Wedding  March  at  Rarotonga 265 

John  Williams ;  Messenger  of  Peace 269 

Map  of  the  Samoan  Islands 275 

A  Samoan  Girl 279 

Malietoa,  King  of  the  Samoan  Islands 285 

Prince  Mataafa,  Samoan  Islands 289 

Mataafa's  Bodyguard ^ 295 

The  Wrecked  Ships _ 299 

The  Wreckage  at  Apia 303 

Map  of  Micronesia 307 

Heathen  Micronesians  ;    Ponape  Missionaries  ___ 315 

Marshall  Island  Warrior;  Gilbert  Island  Belle 321 

Micronesian  Woman  ;    Princess  Opatinia 331 

Nukualofa,  Tonga  Island 341 

Map  of  New  Zealand- __ 351 

New  Zealand  King,  Tawhao;    New  Zealand  Woman 361 

Scene  on  Bird  Island,  Hawaiian  Group 373 

Scene  on  Bird  Island,  Hawaiian  Group 383 

Map  of  Fiji  and  Tonga  Islands _ _  391 

Tanoa,  Fiji  King;  Fiji  Queen „  399 

Map  of  New  Hebrides 409 

Samoan  Missionary 417 

Landing-place  at  Bounty  Bay,  Pitcairn  Island 443 

Parliament  of  Pitcairn  Island;  Pitcairn  Avenue 449 

Scene  in  Tahiti 463 

Scene  on  a  Coral  Island;  First  Method  of  Preaching 469 

View  of  Mulimu,  Samoa 475 

Entrance  to  Apolima,  Samoa 481 

Valley  of  Voona,  Fiji 487 

Kaiulani - 495 

Banana  Trees  at  Honolulu _ 505 


COOK'S  BAY  IN  MOOREA,  SOCIETY  ISLANDS. 


THE  OCEAN,  ITS  ISLANDS  AND  PEOPLES.        I? 

Isthmus  discovered  a  new  ocean,  we  from  our  present 
standpoint  may  behold,  not  far  distant,  a  new  age  of  en- 
lightenment and  benevolence,  a  Pacific  Age,  about  to 
dawn  over  all  this  ocean. 

Of  all  the  matters  that  attract  attention  to  this  part 
of  the  world  none  are  more  important  than  these  philan- 
thropic enterprises.  To  understand  them  it  is  necessary 
first  to  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  physical  features  of  this 
ocean  and  of  its  islands,  and  of  the  character  and  history 
of  its  peoples. 

The  Pacific  Ocean  is  the  largest  expanse  of  water  in 
the  world,  covering  an  area  of  67,810,000  square  miles  : 
more  than  a  quarter  of  the  earth's  surface.  Its  greatest 
dimensions  are  10,000  miles  east  and  west  along  the 
Equator,  from  South  America  to  Asia,  and  9,000  miles 
north  and  south,  from  Behring  Strait  to  the  Antarctic 
Circle.  Its  average  depth  is  2,500  fathoms,  and  its 
greatest  depth  yet  discovered  4,475  fathoms,  or  about 
five  and  a  quarter  miles,  a  depth  found  between  the 
Caroline  and  Ladrone  Islands. 

The  islands  of  this  ocean  are  classified  as  the  Conti- 
nental and  Oceanic.  The  Continental  islands  lie  near 
and  parallel  to  the  continents  of  Asia  and  Australia,  from 
the  Aleutian  Islands  on  the  north  to  Sumatra  and  New 
Zealand  on  the  south.  The  Oceanic  islands  occupy  the 
rest  of  the  ocean.  They  lie  in  lines  or  ranges  trending 
from  southeast  to  northwest,  a  few  in  lines  tranverse  to 
this  direction ;  and  each  island  is  elongated  in  the  same 
direction  with  the  group  to  which  it  belongs.  These 
lines  of  the  islands  are  generally  parallel  to  the  outlines 


18  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

of  the  continents  and  to  the  great  mountain  ranges  of 
the  world  ;  which  indicates  that  the  same  cosmic  forces 
that  lifted  the  continents  and  their  mountain  ranges  up- 
heaved these  islands. 

The  Oceanic  islands  are  of  two  kinds  :  the  coral  and 
the  volcanic.  The  coral  islands  consist  of  atolls  and 
elevated  islands.  The  atolls  are  mere  sand-banks,  formed 
by  accumulations  of  debris  washed  by  the  ocean  upon 
coral  reefs,  and  are  generally  not  more  than  ten  or  twelve 
feet  in  height  above  high-water  mark.  They  are  narrow, 
varying  from  a  few  yards  to  a  hundred  yards  in  breadth, 
and  generally  inclose  lagoons,  into  which  the  ocean 
washes  through  openings  on  the  leeward  sides.  On 
these  strips  of  sandy  soil,  seeds,  enveloped  in  thick  husks, 
borne  thither  by  the  waves,  have  taken  root  and  grown 
into  lofty  trees.  But  the  flora  does  not  comprise  more 
than  fifty  species.  These  islands  are  subject  to  drouths, 
being  too  low  to  attract  the  clouds  and  obtain  frequent 
rainfalls,  and  for  this  reason  have  been  called  "the 
deserts  of  the  Pacific."  The  food  of  the  inhabitants 
consists  of  cocoanuts,  pandanus,  and  fish. 

The  elevated  coral  islands  are  few  in  number,  and 
situated  amongst  the  volcanic  islands,  to  which  class 
they  belong.  They  have  a  fertile  soil  and  a  luxuriant 
and  varied  vegetation.  Many  of  them  are  of  remarkable 
beauty  and  fruitfulness. 

These  atolls  and  elevated  coral  islands  lie,  as  it  were, 
in  a  valley  between  two  ranges  of  volcanic  islands,  the 
Marquesas  and  Hawaiian  on  the  north,  and  the  Society, 
the  Samoa,  and  other  islands,  on  the  south. 


THE  OCEAN,  ITS  ISLANDS  AND  PEOPLES.        21 

This  so-called  valley  of  coral  islands  is  generally  be- 
lieved to  be  the  result  of  a  subsidence  which  has  occurred 
since  their  first  upheaval.  Subsidences  are  now  occurring 
in  some  parts  of  the  ocean  and  upheavals  in  others,  as  is 
the  case  on  the  continents.  As  the  coral  polyp  cannot  live 
below  twenty-five  fathoms  depth  beneath  the  surface  of 
the  ocean,  and  the  depth  of  the  coral  of  some  of  these 
islands  is  one  thousand  fathoms,  the  coral-polyp  must 
have  commenced  its  operations  in  shoal  water  around 
ancient  islands,  and  continued  building  upward,  as  the 
islands  slowly  sank,  thus  forming  the  barrier-reefs  around 
the  volcanic  islands,  and,  where  the  islands  entirely  sank 
away,  the  reefs  that  inclose  lagoons.  The  reason  why 
those  lagoons  and  the  spaces  between  the  barrier-reefs 
and  the  shores  do  not  fill  with  a  continuous  growth  of 
coral  is  that  the  coral  polyp  thrives  only  on  the  outsides 
of  reefs,  where  it  receives  food  from  the  pure  aerated 
water  of  the  ocean  currents,  but  dies  amidst  the  muddy 
water  and  debris  near  the  shores. 

The  volcanic  islands  are  so  called  because  of  their 
volcanic  origin.  Their  whole  frame-work  is  volcanic 
rock  ;  on  nearly  all  of  them  are  extinct  craters  ;  and  on 
some  of  them  are  active  volcanoes. 

They  are  high,  like  mountains  rising  from  the  ocean, 
varying  from  a  few  hundred  to  fourteen  thousand  feet  in 
height.  In  the  South  Pacific  some  of  them  are  very  pic- 
turesque, being  deeply  cleft  with  valleys,  and  crowned 
with  peaks,  pinnacles,  and  crags ;  and  over  all  there 
spreads  the  richest  tropical  vegetation  of  every  tint  and 
shade  of  green.  Vines  so  overrun  the  cliffs  and  trees 


22  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

that  their  appearance  has  been  compared  to  waterfalls  of 
foliage.  Tourists  have  described  some  of  these  islands 
as  like  earthly  paradises,  and  have  remarked  that  "it  is 
difficult  for  the  most  glowing  imagination  to  conceive  of 
places  more  enchanting."  / 

Around  most  of  these  islands  are  barrier-reefs,  extend- 
ing parallel  with  the  shore  at  distances  varying  from  a 
few  yards  to  several  miles.  Opposite  the  large  valleys 
there  are  openings  through  these  reefs;  for  the  coral 
polyps  cannot  live  in  the  muddy  waters  that  are  poured 
forth  by  the  streams  of  the  valleys.  These  openings 
form  good  entrances  to  excellent  harbors,  while  the 
barrier-reefs  protect  the  shores  from  the  violence  of  ocean 
waves  in  time  of  storms,  and  thus  enclose  quiet  waters 
that  are  of  great  value  for  fishing,  and  for  voyaging  from 
village  to  village. 

The  climate  in  all  these  islands  has  less  extremes  of 
heat  and  cold  than  occur  at  similar  latitudes  on  the 
continents,  as  it  is  modified  by  the  winds  and  currents 
of  the  ocean.  In  the  extreme  South  Pacific  these 
currents  flow  with  the  winds  to  the  east,  and  send  north 
along  the  Patagonian  coast  a  stream  which  trends  with 
the  trade  winds  to  the  northwest,  and  moderates  the 
heat  of  the  Southern  Tropics.  In  the  Western  Pacific 
the  Japanese  Gulf  Stream  flows  northeast  to  the  Aleutian 
Islands,  and  then  south  along  the  coast  of  North  America, 
and  trending  with  the  northeast  trade  winds  to  the 
southwest  moderates  the  heat  of  the  Northern  Tropics. 
Where  these  currents  do  not  moderate  the  heat  the 
temperature  of  the  ocean  sometimes  rises  to  85°  Fahren- 


THE   OCEAN,  ITS  ISLANDS   AND   PEOPLES.      2$ 

heit ;  as  is  the  case  near  Mexico  and  near  Sumatra. 
In  the  South  Pacific,  especially  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  Samoa  Islands,  violent  hurricanes  sometimes  occur 
during  the  period  from  December  to  April. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Oceanic  islands  are  of  four 
races  :  Polynesians,  Papuans,  Fijis,  and  Micronesians. 

The  area  occupied  by  the  Polynesians  extends  from 
the  Samoas  on  the  west  to  the  Paumotus  on  the  east, 
and  from  New  Zealand  on  the  south  to  Hawaii  on  the 
north.  The  Polynesians  are  a  brown  people,  the  finest 
in  physical  development  of  the  Pacific  races.  They  are 
naturally  of  amiable,  affectionate  and  happy  tempera- 
ment. Their  origin  is  traced  by  their  language  to  the 
southern  part  of  Asia,  and  particularly  to  the  Malay 
Peninsula.  The  same  race  inhabits  Madagascar.  Their 
language  is  mellifluous,  consisting  chiefly  of  vowels. 
The  races  of  strong  character,  high  thought  and  great 
enterprise  seem  to  have  used  many  consonants  in  ex- 
pressing their  ideas,  while  this  race,  dwelling  indolently 
and  listlessly  in  the  comforts  of  the  Tropics,  expressed 
their  few,  simple  ideas  by  soft  vowel  sounds  and  ab- 
breviated words.  In  their  primitive  migrations,  as  they 
moved  northward,  they  seem  to  have  contracted  their 
words  and  dropped  their  consonants,  till  they  reached 
Hawaii,  where  only  twelve  letters  were  employed  to 
spell  all  the  Hawaiian  words.  This  language  of  Hawaii, 
at  the  extreme  north,  is  more  similar  to  that  of  New 
Zealand,  at  the  extreme  southwest,  than  to  those  of 
some  of  the  intermediate  islands.  Probably  the  lan- 
guages of  the  intermediate  islands  were  changed  by  the 


26  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

coming  of  voyagers  of  others  races  from  the  west,  while 
New  Zealand  and  Hawaii,  in  their  secluded  situations, 
preserved  their  primitive  language  in  greater  purity.  The 
variations  in  their  languages  and  the  differences  in  their 
customs  indicate  that  all  the  Polynesians  have  been  mixed 
more  or  less  with  other  races. 

The  Papuans  occupy  the  New  Hebrides  and  the 
adjacent  islands  on  the  southwest.  They  are  a  black, 
frizzly-haired  people,  and  are  allied  to  the  tribes  of 
Australia  and  South  Africa.  They  are  generally  small 
in  stature,  and  physically  and  intellectually  inferior 
to  the  Polynesians.  Their  language,  unlike  the  Poly- 
nesian, abounds  in  consonants  and  closed  syllables,  and 
is  divided  into  so  many  dialects  that  Papuans  on  many 
closely  adjacent  islands  cannot  converse  with  each  other. 

The  Fijis,  who  are  situated  between  the  Polynesians 
and  the  Papuans,  are  a  mixed  race,  part  Polynesian  and 
part  Papuan,  inferior  to  the  Polynesians  and  superior  to 
the  Papuans. 

The  Micronesians,  who  are  situated  north  of  the 
Samoas,  are  a  mixed  race,  part  Polynesian  and  part 
Japanese,  with  traces  of  Papuan.  The  Japanese  element 
is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  Japanese  voyagers  have 
occasionally  been  storm-driven  to  great  distances  over 
the  ocean  through  the  belt  of  Micronesian  islands. 
"In  1814  the  British  brig  Forester  met  with  a  Japan- 
ese junk  off  the  coast  of  California,  with  three  living  men 
and  fourteen  dead  bodies  on  board.  In  December,  1832, 
a  Japanese  junk  arrived  at  Hawaii  with  four  of  her  crew 
living."  The  Micronesians  are  darker  and  of  smaller 


THE   OCEAN,   ITS   ISLANDS  AND   PEOPLES.      27 

stature  than  the  Polynesians  ;  but  in  the  western  Mi- 
cronesian  islands  they  are  of  lighter  complexion,  and 
more  like  the  Japanese. 

For  ages  these  oceanic  races  lived  secluded  on  the  is- 
lands of  their  watery  domain,  a  world  by  themselves, 
with  a  romantic  history  of  voyages  from  island  to  is- 
land, of  pagan  orgies,  and  savage  wars.  They  labored 
under  disadvantages,  for  advancing  in  civilization,  from 
their  lack  of  metals,  of  which  to  make  tools,  and  from 
the  very  salubrity  of  their  climate  and  productiveness  of 
their  soil,  which  obviated  the  need  of  labor  for  a  liveli- 
hood. They  had  but  to  throw  the  net  into  the  still 
waters  inside  their  reefs  to  catch  fish,  and  to  reach  out 
the  hand  to  pluck  the  ripe  plantain  or  breadfruit,  and 
in  the  perennial  mildness  of  their  climate  could  live  al- 
most without  clothing.  With  great  skill  they  made 
dwellings,  canoes,  and  household  fabrics,  by  the  use  of 
stone  adzes  and  knives  of  bones  and  shell,  and  beat  out 
a  poor  kind  of  clothing  from  the  bark  of  trees ;  but  in 
their  primitive  condition  they  were  generally  little  better 
in  appearance  than  herds  of  wild  animals. 

In  their  social  condition  they  were  not  much  better. 
Though  occupying  regions  of  enchanting  beauty,  they 
were  by  no  means,  as  represented  by  some  writers  of 
fiction,  mere  sinless  creatures  of  love  and  light.  The 
popular  author,  Hermann  Melville,  has  humorously 
written  of  the  felicity  of  their  condition,  with  "no 
taxes  to  pay,  no  mortages  to  be  foreclosed,  without  the 
everlasting  strife  of  civilized  nations  for  money."  But 
they  did  not  merely  enjoy  freedom  and  frolic  and  love- 


28  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

making.  Savage  strife  often  embittered  their  lives. 
Wars  among  them  were  almost  incessant  and  most  cruel. 
Rev.  John  Williams  once  visited  Hervey  Island,  and 
found  that  its  population  had  been  diminished  by  war 
from  two  thousand  to  sixty.  Seven  years  afterwards  he 
again  visited  this  island,  and  found  that  there  were  only 
five  men  and  three  women  surviving ;  and  these  were 
still  contending  who  should  be  king. 

In  all  these  islands  immorality  was  appalling,  and 
frightful  crimes  of  frequent  occurrence.  Infanticide  was 
so  common  that  from  one  fourth  to  two  thirds  of  the 
children  were  strangled  or  buried  alive.  The  sick  and 
the  aged  were  so  commonly  killed  that  few  persons  died 
natural  deaths.  Cannibalism  was  practiced  in  many 
of  the  islands.  In  Hawaii  and  in  a  few  other  islands  it 
was  unknown  ;  but  in  the  Marquesas  and  the  Fiji  Is- 
lands it  prevailed  with  horrors  unsurpassed  elsewhere  in 
the  world.  Distressing  superstitions  darkened  all  the 
lives  of  the  natives  and  held  them  in  iron  bondage.  In 
the  long  night  of  their  isolation  from  enlightening  in- 
fluences they  had  come  to  worship  innumerable  gods 
and  demigods  and  demons,  with  which  they  supposed 
the  sky  and  earth  and  sea  to  swarm.  With  this  wor- 
ship were  combined  painful  restrictions,  called  tabu,  div- 
ination, sorcery,  the  use  of  charms  to  cure  sickness, 
and  black  arts  to  employ  evil  spirits  in  destroying  their 
enemies.  Their  worship  was  also  accompanied  with 
human  sacrifices  and  wild  carousals  that  have  been 
described  as  like  orgies  of  the  infernal  regions. 

It  should  be  noted  that  these  races  were  not  utterly 


THE  OCEAN,  ITS   ISLANDS  AND   PEOPLES.      29 

evil  nor  utterly  wretched.  Paganism  does  not  make  men 
fiends.  Some  remnants  of  man's  nobler  nature  survive 
his  fall.  In  the  wild  barbarism  of  these  islanders  some 
forms  of  social  order  and  civil  government  existed,  and 
beautiful  instances  occurred  of  friendship  and  parental 
and  conjugal  affection  ;  and  there  was  much  of  com- 
fort and  enjoyment  in  their  beautiful  surroundings,  with 
their  balmy  climate  and  profusion  of  delicious  fruits. 
But  with  the  best  that  may  be  said  of  their  condition  it 
must  be  admitted  that  it  was  not  to  be  envied,  but  was 
calculated  only  to  excite  pity  and  call  for  benevolent  en- 
terprise in  their  behalf. 


3O  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

CHAPTER    II. 
UNCIVILIZING    INFLUENCES    FROM    CIVILIZED    COUNTRIES. 

DEPLORABLE  as  was  the  primitive  condition  of  the 
Pacific  Islanders,  it  was  rendered  even  worse  by  evil  in- 
fluences that  came  to  them  from  enlightened  nations. 
Among  the  early  voyagers  to  the  Pacific  were  indeed 
some  worthy  men,  who  led  irreproachable  lives  and  ex- 
erted good  influences.  But  most  of  the  new-comers 
plunged  into  every  form  of  dissipation.  It  became  pro- 
verbial that  in  coming  to  this  far-away  ocean  many  men, 
even  from  the  best  circles  of  society,  "hung  up  their 
consciences  off  Cape  Horn,"  and  seemed  to  conclude 
that  "God  did  not  rule  west  of  America."  Some  of 
these  adventurers  were  from  the  worst  classes  of  civilized 
communities;  from  the  dark  corruption  that  seethes  in 
great  cities,  and  pours  forth  only  to  blight  and  blast 
wherever  the  ships  of  commerce  sail.  The  histories  of 
some  of  these  men  would  be  darker  than  those  of  the 
heathen  themselves. 

The  first  to  sail  on  the  waters  of  this  ocean  were  the 
explorers,  who,  after  Magalhaes'  discovery  of  the  strait 
at  the  southern  extremity  of  South  America,  went  thither 
in  great  numbers  to  search  for  gold.  Foremost  among 
these  were  the  Spaniards  ;  and  these,  with  many  other 
early  navigators,  belonged  chiefly  to  the  same  class  of 
buccaneers  who  under  Cortes  devastated  Mexico,  and 


UNCIVILIZING   INFLUENCES.  31 

under  Pizarro  did  sad  work  in  Peru.  As  might  be  sup- 
posed, many  of  these  navigators  were  guilty  of  great 
excesses  and  atrocities  in  the  Pacific  Islands.  The  fact 
that  the  colony  formed  by  them  at  Tahiti  in  those  early 
times  gave  to  that  island  the  name,  "  Isla  D'Amat,"  in- 
dicates the  style  of  life  they  led. 

After  these  Spaniards  came  navigators  from  other 
nations,  among  whom  was  the  English  Lieutenant  Bligh, 
whose  mutinous  crew,  after  setting  him  adrift  in  a  boat, 
led  a  wild  life  of  drunkenness  and  murder  on  Pitcairn 
Island.  No  one  of  these  navigators  ranked  higher  in 
scientific  attainments  and  character  than  Capt.  James 
Cook  ;  yet  one  of  the  historians  of  his  voyages,  Mr. 
George  Foster,  who  accompanied  him  as  a  naturalist, 
narrates  that  at  Tahiti  and  other  islands  further  west 
his  vessels  were  sometimes  the  scene  of  indescribable 
debaucheries  with  the  natives,  and  that  often  these 
were  cruelly  treated  and  more  than  once  killed  by  his 
officers  for  trivial  offences.  A  murder  of  this  kind  at 
Hawaii  was  doubtless  the  chief  cause  of  the  massacre  of 
the  great  navigator  himself.  From  the  conduct  of  this 
expedition,  led  by  so  respectable  a  man,  it  can  be  in- 
ferred how  scandalous  must  have  been  the  behavior  of 
the  seamen  of  ships  commanded  by  sensual  and  brutal 
captains. 

The  next  class  of  adventurers  to  visit  this  ocean  was 
the  traders,  who  came  to  search  on  the  northwest  coast 
of  America  for  furs  and  in  the  islands  of  the  Tropics  for 
sandal-wood,  b£che-de-mer  (a  marine  slug),  copra  (dried 
cocoanut),  and  pearl  shells.  The  sandal-wood  was 


32  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

sought  for  sale  in  China,  where  it  brought  high  prices 
for  use  as  incense  in  idol-worship ;  the  b£che-de-mer 
also  was  sold  to  the  Chinese,  who  used  it  for  food  ;  and 
the  furs  and  copra  and  pearl  shells  were  taken  to  Europe. 
Sometimes  one  vessel  would  engage  in  all  these  forms 
of  trade,  going  first  to  the  Arctic  for  furs,  then  to  the 
Tropics  for  sandal-wood,  and  finally  taking  silks  and 
tea  from  China  to  Europe.  The  profits  of  these  trades 
were  very  great,  but  the  conduct  of  the  traders  towards 
the  islanders  was  even  worse  than  that  of  the  explorers. 
They  often  gave  sad  lessons  of  treachery  and  cruelty, 
which  all  too  well  the  natives  practised  in  return. 

"In  1842  three  English  vessels  visited  the  island 
Vate,  of  the  New  Hebrides,  and  there  took  by  force  a 
large  quantity  of  fruits  and  vegetables  and  two  hundred 
hogs.  The  natives  made  resistance,  and  a  fight  ensued 
in  which  twenty-six  natives  were  killed  and  the  remain- 
der of  the  natives  driven  to  take  refuge  in  a  cave.  The 
crews  of  the  ships  then  piled  wood  at  the  mouth  of  the 
cave,  and  set  it  on  fire  and  suffocated  all  within.  The 
next  year  the  crew  of  the  Cape  packet  were  massacred 
at  this  island. 

"At  Mare,  of  the  New  Hebrides,  three  natives  once 
swam  off  to  a  vessel  that  called  for  sandal-wood,  and 
while  bargaining  got  into  an  altercation  with  the  captain. 
He  fired  on  them,  killing  two ;  the  third  swam  ashore. 
A  few  months  afterwards  the  crew  of  the  Lady  Ann 
were  massacred  at  this  island." 

It  was  to  avenge  such  outrages  as  these  that  the  mis- 
sionary, Rev.  John  Williams,  was  murdered  by  the  na- 


UNCIVILIZING   INFLUENCES.  33 

tives  of  Erromanga.  The  early  missionaries  at  Hawaii 
remarked  of  some  of  these  traders  that  they  made  their 
vessels  ' '  like  floating  exhibitions  of  Sodom  and  Gomor- 
rah," and  that  their  influence  was  only  "to  make  the 
Hawaiians  a  nation  of  drunkards. " 

The  infernal  spirit  of  some  of  these  traders  was  shown 
by  an  outrage  they  committed  at  Tanna,  of  the  New 
Hebrides,  which  is  recounted  by  Rev.  John  G.  Paton  in 
his  interesting  Autobiography.  During  the  year  1860 
three  captains  came  to  Port  Resolution,  of  Tanna,  and 
gleefully  informed  Mr.  Paton  that  to  humble  the  Tan- 
nese  and  to  diminish  their  number  they  had  put  on  shore 
at  different  ports  four  young  men  ill  with  the  measles. 
As  Mr.  Paton  remonstrated  they  exclaimed,  ' '  Our  watch- 
word is,  '  Sweep  these  creatures  away  and  let  white  men 
occupy  the  soil. '  They  then  invited  a  chief  by  the  name 
of  Kapuku  on  board  one  of  their  vessels,  promising  him 
a  present,  and  confined  him  for  twenty-four  hours  with- 
out food  in  the  hold  among  natives  ill  with  the  measles, 
and  finally  sent  him  ashore  without  a  present  to  spread 
the  disease.  ' '  The  measles  thus  introduced  spread  fear- 
fully, and  decimated  the  population  of  the  island.  In 
some  villages  men,  women  and  children  were  stricken 
down  together,  and  none  could  give  food  or  water  to  the 
sick  or  bury  the  dead. " 

The  sandal-wood  trade  was  followed  in  1828  by  the 
whale  fishery.  The  ships  engaged  in  this  business  often 
visited  the  islands  to  obtain  supplies  or  to  spend  the  win- 
ter. The  writer  has  seen  as  many  as  a  hundred  of  them 
at  one  time  at  the  port  of  Lahaina,  of  the  Hawaiian 


34  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

Islands.  When  the  crews  of  these  ships  took  their  fur- 
loughs on  shore  they  easily  had  everything  their  own 
way,  and  sometimes  made  bedlam  of  the  quiet  villages 
of  the  natives. 

When  the  whale  fishery  declined,  on  account  of  the 
discovery  of  coal-oil,  numerous  agricultural  enterprises 
were  started  in  some  of  the  islands  and  vessels  were  sent 
to  the  western  part  of  the  Pacific  to  procure  laborers  for 
these  enterprises.  These  vessels  were  sometimes  sent 
out  under  trustworthy  officials,  who  took  care  that  the 
laborers  were  taken  only  with  their  voluntary  consent 
and  with  well-explained  contracts  for  wages  and  for  their 
free  return  to  their  island  homes.  But  irresponsible  par- 
ties sometimes  undertook  to  supply  plantations  in  Aus- 
tralia and  Fiji  by  methods  as  infamous  as  the  slave-trade 
of  Africa.  A  captain  of  a  small  vessel  would  sometimes 
get  clearance-papers  from  Sydney  for  trading  in  copra 
and  trepang,  and  then  cruise  to  kidnap  the  natives  who 
would  come  off  in  canoes  with  supplies.  Sometimes  he 
would  assume  the  guise  of  a  missionary.  Painting  his 
vessel  white,  that  it  might  resemble  the  mission  packets, 
he  would  approach  an  island  with  a  white  flag  flying,  and 
on  arriving  at  port  go  ashore  dressed  like  a  respectable 
gentleman,  wearing  spectacles,  carrying  an  umbrella  over 
his  head  and  a  Bible  under  his  arm.  As  the  natives  joy- 
fully flocked  to  meet  him,  he  would  invite  them  aboard 
his  ship  and  into  his  cabin,  and  then  suddenly  seize  and 
manacle  them,  and  put  his  vessel  to  sea  amid  the  cries 
of  their  relatives  and  friends  in  the  surrounding  canoes. 

An  outrage  of  this   kind  occasioned  the  death   of 


COAST  SCENE  ON  UPOLU,  SAMOAN  ISLANDS. 


UNCIVILIZING   INFLUENCES.  37 

Bishop  Patteson,  of  the  Melanesian  Mission.  "Some 
traders  once  painted  their  ship  in  imitation  of  his,  and 
by  this  artifice  were  able  to  kidnap  some  natives  from 
the  island  of  Nakapu,  of  the  Swallow  Group,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  sending  them  to  plantations  in  Queensland  and 
Fiji.  When  the  missionary  ship,  as  it  cruised  among 
the  islands,  again  approached  Nakapu,  the  natives,  mis- 
taking it  for  the  kidnapping  craft,  determined  to  avenge 
themselves.  The  bishop,  unsuspicious,  lowered  his  boat 
and  went  to  meet  them  coming  in  their  canoes.  Accord- 
ing to  their  custom  they  asked  him  to  get  into  one  of 
their  boats,  which  he  did,  and  was  taken  to  the  shore. 
He  was  never  seen  alive  again.  Immediate  search  was 
made  and  his  body  was  found,  pierced  with  five  wounds 
and  wrapped  in  a  coarse  mat,  with  a  palm-leaf  laid  on 
his  breast." 

This  infamous  traffic  in  human  flesh  has  been  recently 
carried  on  for  furnishing  laborers  to  plantations  in  Gua- 
temala and  South  America.  In  1890  the  ship  Alma 
took  400  natives  of  Micronesia  to  Guatemala,  and  two 
years  afterwards  only  180  of  them  were  living,  the  rest 
having  died  of  fevers  contracted  in  the  malarious  swamps 
of  the  plantations.  In  1892  the  brig  Tahiti  took  300 
natives  from  the  Gilbert  Islands  to  labor  on  plantations 
in  America,  and  was  capsized  near  the  coast  of  Mexico, 
and  afterwards  found  floating  bottom  up.  Not  one  of 
its  living  freight  was  ever  heard  of. 

^On  the  23d  of  April  of  the  same  year  the  steamer 
Monserrat,  Capt.  W.  H.  Ferguson,  manager,  and  Capt. 
Blackburn,  sailing-master,  cleared  from  San  Francisco 


38  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

ostensibly  for  a  trading  voyage  to  Nanaimo,  but  really 
for  a  kidnapping  expedition  to  the  Gilbert  Islands. 
The  publishers  of  the  newspaper  "Examiner,"  of  San 
Francisco,  secretly  sent  a  reporter,  Mr.  W.  H.  Brom- 
mage,  as  one  of  the  crew,  from  whose  narrative  the  fol- 
lowing items  are  culled. 

Mr.  Ferguson  had  made  a  bargain  with  the  planters 
of  San  Jose"  de  Guatemala  that  they  should  pay  him  #100 
per  head  for  laborers.  With  such  an  inducement  he 
"shipped  "  all  he  could  get  by  fair  means  or  foul,  wheth- 
er little  children,  or  men  and  women  bent  over  with  age 
and  hardly  able  to  walk  up  the  gangway  of  the  steamer. 
The  chief  inducement  of  the  natives  to  embark  on 
the  steamer  was  the  hope  that  they  might  earn  money  on 
the  plantations  to  pay  the  heavy  debts  of  their  king,  on 
account  of  which  their  lands  were  held  by  treacherous 
traders.  Many  of  the  natives  had  died  of  starvation 
because  they  were  forbidden  by  the  traders  to  gather 
their  own  cocoanuts.  They  ' '  shipped  "  for  seven  dol- 
lars per  month  for  labor  for  five  years.  The  form  of  the 
contracts  that  were  made  with  them  was  legitimate,  but 
they  were  entrapped  into  making  them  by  deceit,  vio- 
lence and  cruelty,  and  the  amount  of  wages  contracted 
for  was  entirely  inadequate  to  yield  them  the  profit  they 
expected,  while  most  of  them  would  die  in  the  fever- 
stricken  marshes  to  which  they  were  going. 

Mr.  Ferguson  arrived  first  at  the  island  Marakei,  of 
the  Gilbert  group,  and  here  for  awhile  was  unable  to  ship 
any  adult  natives.  He  therefore  seized  four  boys,  and 
locked  them  up  over  night.  Three  of  them  escaped ; 


UNCIVILIZING   INFLUENCES.  39 

and  the  fourth  was  taken  aboard  the  steamer.  The 
parents  begged  piteously  for  his  release  and,  not  obtain- 
ing it,  finally  " shipped"  to  accompany  him.  This  ruse 
was  again  tried.  Children  were  kidnapped  and  held  till 
their  heart-broken  parents,  rather  than  leave  them  to  be 
carried  forever  away,  embarked  to  go  with  them.  The 
parting  of  others  from  their  parents  was  heart-rending.  A 
chief  of  Apaiang  went  off  to  the  steamer  with  his  wife  to 
bid  good-by  to  their  son  and  give  him  presents.  Capt. 
Ferguson,  seeing  cocoanuts  in  the  chief's  boat,  applied 
for  them,  but  was  informed  that  they  were  for  the  chief's 
son.  Furious  with  rage  he  drove  back  the  parents  from 
ascending  the  gangway  and  cut  their  boat  adrift.  The 
chief  offered  to  bring  cocoanuts  for  him,  if  he  might  be 
permitted  to  see  his  boy,  but  was  refused.  With  the 
mother  weeping  bitterly  they  were  forced  to  leave,  never 
to  see  their  boy  again.  Several  times  some  of  the  natives 
tried  to  escape,  but  were  fired  upon  while  swimming  away 
and  generally  were  recovered.  Some  of  them  piteously 
offered  beads  and  necklaces,  all  the  valuables  they  had, 
to  be  permitted  to  escape,  but  in  vain. 

By  these  and  other  perfidious  and  violent  methods 
Capt.  Ferguson  obtained  400  natives,  of  whom  388  were 
laborers  and  the  remainder  children.  They  were  secured 
as  follows  :  3  from  Butaritari,  40  from  Marakei,  6  from 
Tarava,  8  from  Miana,  40  from  Apaiang,  107  from  Non- 
outi,  97  from  Tapiteuea,  22  from  Peru,  and  5  from 
Nukuwor. 

On  their  voyage  to  America  they  suffered  greatly  from 
uncomfortable  accommodation,  lack  of  drinking-water, 


40  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

and  exposure  to  the  weather.  After  their  arrival  at  Guate- 
mala it  was  remarked  by  the  planters  that  within  a  year 
seventy-five  per  cent,  of  them  would  die  of  fevers. 

Rev.  John  G.  Paton,  of  the  New  Hebrides  Mission, 
has  stated  that  "the  Kanaka  labor-traffic  has  destroyed 
many  thousands  of  the  natives  in  colonial  slavery,  and 
largely  depopulated  the  islands  either  directly  or  indirect- 
ly, by  spreading  disease  and  vice,  misery  and  death, 
among  them  even  at  the  best,  at  the  worst  tasking  many 
of  them  till  they  perished  at  their  toils,  shooting  down 
others  under  one  or  other  guilty  pretence,  and  positively 
sweeping  thousands  to  an  untimely  grave.  A  common 
cry  on  the  lips  of  the  slave-hunters  was,  '  Let  them  perish, 
and  let  the  white  man  occupy  these  islands. ' "  He  has 
estimated  that  70,000  Pacific  Islanders  have  been  taken 
from  their  homes  by  slave-hunters. 

Besides  transient  visitors,  there  were  many  men  from 
civilized  countries  who  made  their  permanent  home  in 
the  Pacific  Islands  and  exerted  a  more  abiding  influ- 
ence. Frequently  seamen  were  attracted  by  the  enchant- 
ing beauty  of  the  islands  to  desert  their  ships  and  live 
with  the  natives.  Some  of  these  "run-away  sailors" 
were  worthy  men  and  exerted  excellent  influences.  Some 
of  them  became  missionaries,  and  greatly  promoted  the 
good  of  the  natives.  But  the  greater  number  of  them 
led  sensual  and  brutal  lives,  and  some  of  them  became 
even  worse  than  the  natives ;  for  civilized  men  turned 
savage  become  the  worst  of  savages. 

In  the  year  1834  the  American  missionaries  found  on 
the  island  of  Nukuhiva,  of  the  Marquesas  group,  one  of 


WATERFALL  IN  TAHITI. 


UNCIVILIZING   INFLUENCES.  43 

these  "run-away  sailors,"  a  man  by  the  name  of  Hellish, 
who  claimed  to  be  the  son  of  an  English  nobleman  and 
that  he  had  been  sent  to  sea  as  a  bad  boy  to  be  reformed. 
He  was  tattooed  all  over  except  on  his  face,  and  was  al- 
most entirely  nude.  His  chief  delight  was  in  attending 
native  feasts  ;  for  which  he  would  often  climb  over  the 
steepest  and  highest  ridges  of  the  island.  He  remarked 
that  this  was  the  "happiest  period  of  his  life."  On  the 
same  island  another  of  these  "  run-aways,"  by  the  name  of 
Morrison,  formed  a  diabolical  plan  to  massacre  the  mis- 
sionaries in  order  to  obtain  their  few  articles  of  property  ; 
but  before  he  could  accomplish  his  purpose  he  suddenly 
died  in  consequence  of  excessive  gluttony.  It  has  been 
ascertained  that  many  piracies  of  vessels  and  massacres 
of  seamen  in  the  Southern  Pacific  have  been  instigated 
and  conducted  by  men  of  this  stripe. 

One  of  these  men  was  the  notorious  pirate,  called 
"Bully  Hayes,"  who  began  his  career  by  kidnapping 
from  San  Francisco  a  vessel  loaded  with  lumber.  He  sold 
the  lumber  in  Mexico,  and  then  sailed  to  China,  and  there 
took  aboard  his  vessel  a  large  number  of  coolies  for  New 
South  Wales.  As  a  capitation  tax  of  five  dollars  a  head 
was  required  to  be  paid  for  introducing  coolies  into  New 
South  Wales  he  was  supplied  with  money  for  paying  it. 
He  skilfully  contrived  to  retain  this  money  and  get  rid 
of  the  coolies.  On  arriving  off  New  South  Wales  he  put 
up  a  flag  of  distress  and  flooded  the  hold  of  his  vessel 
from  his  fresh- water  casks,  and  when  a  vessel  came  to  his 
relief  he  showed  by  the  fresh  water  that  his  vessel  was 
rapidly  leaking,  as  he  was  pumping  clear  water,  and  re- 


44  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

marked  that  he  could  take  care  of  his  vessel  if  he  could 
be  relieved  of  his  coolies.  The  captain  who  had  come 
for  his  assistance  kindly  took  the  coolies  aboard  his  ves- 
sel ;  whereupon  Hayes  put  to  sea,  and  soon  was  out  of 
sight.  The  captain  who  took  the  coolies  was  afterwards 
obliged  to  pay  the  tax  for  landing  them. 

Hayes  was  next  heard  of  at  the  Micronesian  Islands, 
where  he  undertook  to  buy  a  larger  vessel  loaded  with 
rice.  Being  permitted  to  try  the  vessel  before  purchasing 
her,  he  put  to  sea  on  her,  and  was  not  again  seen  by  the 
owner.  Hayes  had  wives  and  children  on  many  of  the 
islands.  Once  he  upset  a  boat  with  one  of  his  wives  and 
some  of  his  children,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  them  ;  but  as 
they  could  swim  as  well  as  he  they  all  escaped  to  land. 
Rev.  John  G.  Paton  tells  how  "the  notorious  Hayes 
once  sent  an  armed  band  inland  on  Tanna,  who  night 
after  night  robbed  and  plundered  whatever  came  to  hand. 
The  natives,  seeing  the  food  of  their  children  ruthlessly 
stolen,  made  objection,  and  were  shot  down  without 
mercy.  Glad  were  we, "  says  Mr.  Paton,  ' '  when  a  ves- 
sel carried  away  these  white  heathen  savages. "  Hayes  led 
a  wild  life  of  sensuality,  cruelty,  and  piracy,  and  at  last 
was  killed  by  one  of  his  mates,  whom  he  had  maltreated, 
on  one  of  the  vessels  he  had  stolen  from  San  Francisco. 

The  most  desperate  class  of  settlers  in  the  Pacific 
Islands  were  the  convicts  from  Europe.  In  1604  a  num- 
ber of  these  escaped  from  New  South  Wales,  and  settled 
at  Mbau  and  Rewa  of  the  Fiji  group.  They  were  regard- 
ed by  the  natives  as  supernatural  beings,  because  of  their 
skill  in  the  use  of  fire-arms,  and  thereby  gained  unbound- 


UNCIVILIZING   INFLUENCES.  47 

ed  influence.  They  made  no  effort  to  acquire  dominion 
over  the  islands,  but  sought  only  to  gratify  their  vilest 
passions.  There  were  twenty-seven  of  these  lawless  men  ; 
but  in  a  few  years  the  greater  part  of  them  had  fallen  in 
the  wars  of  the  natives  and  in  quarrels  with  each  other. 
Their  dissipation  and  cruelty  amazed  even  the  cannibal 
Fijis. 

This  description  of  the  evil  conduct  in  the  Pacific  of 
men  from  civilized  nations  would  be  incomplete  without 
some  allusion  to  the  aggressions  by  these  nations  them- 
selves. Strange  to  say,  several  of  these  nations,  while 
sometimes  severely  punishing  the  islanders  for  wrongs 
done  to  their  subjects,  have  themselves  committed  simi- 
lar wrongs.  Acting  on  the  doctrines  of  the  Dark  Ages, 
they  have  sought  to  take  possession  of  the  islands  which 
their  subjects  have  discovered.  It  has  not  mattered  that 
already  the  native  people  were  in  possession,  since  the 
usurpation  has  been  professedly  for  their  benefit.  With 
this  view  the  cross  has  been  erected  as  well  as  flags  of 
dominion  ;  and  Romish  priests  have  been  sent  to  in- 
trigue by  religion  while  war-ships  made  forcible  in- 
vasion. 

The  priests  that  have  been  sent  to  the  Pacific  Islands 
have  shown  a  singular  zeal  in  prosecuting  their  mission. 
In  Tahiti  they  contrived  a  happy  device  for  saving  the 
souls  of  the  heathen,  and  wrote  of  it  to  Europe.  They 
said  that  they  were  accustomed  to  carry  two  flasks,  one  of 
perfumed  water  and  the  other  of  holy  water,  and  on  meet- 
ing a  mother  with  an  infant  they  would  engage  her  at- 
tention by  the  perfumed  water  and  then  secretly  sprinkle 


m  OI 

f  UNIVERSITY 


. 


48  THE  ISLANDS   OF   THE  PACIFIC. 

on  her  child  a  few  drops  of  the  water  that  would  work 
regeneration.  They  also  artfully  performed  apparent  mir- 
acles to  overcome  the  incredulity  of  the  natives.  Some- 
times their  miracles  were  too  transparent  to  influence  the 
natives  ;  as  was  once  the  case  at  Kauai,  where  an  image 
of  the  Virgin  was  made  to  bow  its  head  at  the  "Ave 
Marias  "  of  a  priest  but  at  length  ceased  to  bow,  in  spite  of 
repeated  salutations  ;  and  finally  a  native  put  out  his  head 
from  a  curtain  in  the  rear  and  exclaimed, ' '  Ua  moku  ka 
kaula."  "The  string  is  broken  !  " 

These  pious  ' '  fathers  "  strove  less  against  paganism 
than  against  Protestantism,  and  sometimes  less  to  exor- 
cise the  devil  than  to  deport  or  murder  Protestant  mis- 
sionaries. Their  benevolent  aim  was  not  so  much  to  save 
the  souls  of  the  natives  as  to  gain  dominion  for  their  re- 
spective countries  ;  for  they  rarely  went  where  there  were 
heathen  to  be  converted,  but  chiefly  where  Protestant 
missionaries,  by  long  years  of  toil,  suffering  and  martyr- 
dom, had  first  converted  the  heathen  and  made  the 
islands  safe  and  delightful  places  of  residence.  Almost 
always  the  islanders  at  first  rejected  their  superstition  be- 
cause it  too  much  resembled  their  own  old  idolatry  ;  and 
in  some  cases,  as  at  Hawaii,  they  expelled  the  priests 
because  their  worship  of  images  was  a  violation  of  the 
new  laws  that  had  been  enacted  against  idolatry.  Such 
occurrences  afforded  pretexts  for  military  invasion ;  for 
which  there  seems  to  have  been  a  preconcerted  plan. 

On  this  plan,  France  sent  Admiral  Dupetit-Thouars  and 
several  priests  of  the  Picpusian  Order  to  the  Pacific  in 
about  the  year  1851.  Two  of  these  priests  landed  in 


UNCIVILIZING   INFLUENCES.  49 

disguise  at  Tahiti,  and  were  expelled  by  Queen  Pomare 
because  of  their  intrigues  against  her  government.  Ad- 
miral Thouars  soon  brought  them  back  and  demanded 
that  they  should  be  allowed  to  reside  in  Tahiti,  that  an 
indemnity  of  $30,000  should  be  paid  to  France  for  al- 
leged insults  to  the  French  flag,  and  that  the  Tahitians 
should  erect  a  Roman  Catholic  Church  at  their  own  ex- 
pense in  every  district  where  they  had  built  one  for  Prot- 
estant worship.  He  threatened  to  bombard  the  island  if 
the  Queen  did  not  assent  to  his  demands  in  three  days. 
As  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  pay  the  required  indem- 
nity she  fled  to  the  neighboring  island,  Moorea,  while 
the  greater  part  of  her  people  took  refuge  in  the  moun- 
tains. 

The  Admiral  sent  his  troops  against  them  and  these 
troops  were  repeatedly  overcome  in  desperate  conflicts ; 
but  finally  they  conquered  by  their  superior  military 
prowess.  In  November,  1843,  Admiral  Thouars  de- 
clared the  Queen  incompetent  to  govern,  and  proclaimed 
a  Protectorate  over  her  islands.  The  name  Protectorate 
was  a  misnomer ;  for  the  French  ever  afterwards  com- 
pletely ruled  her  islands.  In  June,  1880,  the  French  per- 
suaded King  Pomare,  a  successor  of  the  Queen,  to  cede 
the  nominal  sovereignty  of  his  islands  to  France.  The 
annexation  was  formally  proclaimed  at  Papeete  on  the 
24th  of  March,  1881,  and  celebrated  with  a  brilliant 
festival. 

Admiral  Thouars  also  visited  the  Marquesas  Islands, 
in  1842,  and  there  proposed  to  make  a  chief  by  the  name 
of  Mowana  king  of  that  group.  The  natives  at  first 
3 


50  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

welcomed  the  admiral,  but  when  they  perceived  his  de- 
signs they  fiercely  opposed  him.  In  one  battle  on  Nu- 
kuhiva  one  hundred  and  fifty  natives  were  killed.  But 
the  French  finally  triumphed,  and  took  formal  possession 
of  the  Marquesas  Islands,  and  also  of  the  adjacent  Gam- 
bier,  Astral,  and  Tuamotu  or  Pearl  Islands. 

Similar  aggressions  have  been  perpetrated  by  Spain  in 
the  Caroline  Islands,  and  by  Germany  in  the  Marshall 
and  Samoa  Islands,  which  will  be  described  in  other 
chapters  of  this  book. 

The  dark  record  that  has  been  given  of  the  conduct 
of  enlightened  races  in  the  Pacific  affords  only  a  faint 
view  of  the  mischief  they  have  done.  Besides  their  bar- 
barities and  felonious  usurpations  they  have  introduced 
intoxicating  liquors  and  new  diseases,  and  thereby  caused 
a  terrible  mortality  of  the  native  races.  The  native  pop- 
ulation of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  has  diminished,  since 
their  discovery  in  1778,  from  400,000  to  32,000  ;  that  of 
the  Marquesas  Islands  from  20,000  to  5,000;  and  that  of 
Strong's  Island,  in  Micronesia,  from  6,000  to  600.  A 
similar  diminution  has  occurred  in  almost  all  the  islands 
of  the  Pacific. 

A  cheap  way  of  explaining  this  diminution  has  been 
to  attribute  it  to  the  influence  of  civilization  and  Chris- 
tianity. It  has  been  said  that  the  mistakes  made  by  the 
islanders  in  adapting  themselves  to  the  changed  condi- 
tions in  Christian  civilization  caused  them  to  contract 
many  diseases  which  caused  great  mortality. 

It  may  be  answered  that  civilization,  with  its  tendency 
to  awaken  to  industrial  activities,  and  Christianity,  with 


UNCIVILIZING   INFLUENCES.  51 

its  power  to  cause  righteous  living,  do  not  destroy  com- 
munities ;  also  that  physicians  have  proved  beyond  ques- 
tion that  the  diminution  of  the  Pacific  Islanders  has  been 
caused  by  diseases  introduced  by  the  vices  and  intemper- 
ance of  the  white  races.  Christianity  has  only  retarded 
this  diminution.  In  the  islands  where  missions  have  not 
been  established  the  diminution  has  been  the  most  rapid. 
In  some  of  these  islands  the  natives  have  become  almost 
extinct.  But  in  other  islands,  where  missions  have  done 
their  best  work,  and  where  foreigners  have  seldom  come, 
the  natives  are  increasing  in  number.  In  some  of  the 
secluded  localities  of  the  Samoa  Islands  the  population 
has  been  increasing  at  the  rate  of  one  per  cent,  per  an- 
num. The  Rev.  Mr.  Moulton,  missionary  in  the  Tonga 
group,  has  asserted  that  the  population  of  the  Tonga 
Islands  has  increased  twenty-five  per  cent,  in  twenty 
years,  and  that  in  the  island  of  Nini  the  increase  is  more 
than  three  per  cent,  per  annum.  The  explanation  of  this 
increase  is  that  these  islands  lie  out  of  the  common  track 
of  ships,  and  that  in  them  missions  have  been  very  suc- 
cessful. 

Sadder  than  the  diminution  of  these  populations  has 
been  the  deeper  barbarism  caused  by  the  influences  from 
enlightened  lands.  The  result  of  the  untold  barbarities 
perpetrated  by  foreigners  in  return  for  the  most  generous 
hospitality  of  the  natives,  and  of  the  introduction  of  fire- 
arms and  ardent  spirits,  has  sometimes  been  to  change 
the  simple-hearted  islanders  almost  into  fiends.  The 
saddest  thing  for  a  heathen  people  is  to  come  into  con- 
tact with  civilization  without  Christianity.  The  tidal 


52  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

waves  that  sometimes  send  up  briny  surges  into  the  beau- 
tiful vegetation  of  the  islands,  and  the  volcanic  torrents 
that  burn  through  their  noblest  forests,  have  hardly  been 
more  terrible  than  these  uncivilizing  influences  of  the 
civilized  races. 

But  good  influences,  as  well  as  evil,  have  gone  from 
civilized  nations.  It  is  delightful  to  turn  from  the  dark 
record  of  the  atrocities  of  unprincipled  adventurers  to 
consider  the  blessed  influences  of  Christian  missions  in 
the  Pacific.  The  success  of  these  missions  against  the 
primeval  paganism  and  the  worse  barbarism  of  "white 
heathen  savages  "  has  been  almost  miraculous. 


CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS   IN   THE   PACIFIC.         55 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    ORIGIN    OF   CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS    IN    THE    PACIFIC. 

THE  rise  of  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  through  the  ages 
of  the  past  from  the  depths  of  the  ocean,  and  their 
transformation  from  wastes  of  rock  and  volcanic  fire  into 
Edens  of  beauty,  was  hardly  more  wonderful  and  sublime 
than  the  elevation,  proposed  through  Christianity,  of  the 
inhabitants  of  those  islands  from  their  primeval  degrada- 
tion into  the  highest  character  of  which  human  nature 
is  capable,  and  finally  to  the  glories  of  heaven.  The  en- 
terprise to  accomplish  so  great  and  glorious  a  work  was 
not  devised  through  the  promptings  of  mere  human  mo- 
tives, nor  through  confidence  in  mere  human  strength. 
Captain  Cook,  in  commenting  on  the  conduct  of  the 
Spaniards  in  erecting  the  cross  on  Tahiti,  wrote  that  in 
his  opinion  nothing  would  ever  be  done  to  Christianize 
the  Pacific  Islanders  ;  ' '  since  there  were  no  motives  in 
public  ambition  nor  in  private  avarice  for  such  an  under- 
taking. "  He  was  correct  in  the  view  that  neither  avarice 
nor  ambition  would  prompt  to  such  an  enterprise.  But 
he  knew  little  of  the  motives  which  Christianity  supplies, 
and  of  the  power  it  exerts  to  lift  up  the  lowest  races  of 
men. 

The  enterprise  of  foreign  missions  originated  only  in 
the  highest  developments  of  Christianity.  When  the 


56  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE  PACIFIC. 

long  political  conflicts  in  Great  Britain  between  the 
Roman  Catholics  and  the  Protestants  had  ceased  the 
churches  in  that  country  became  free  to  rise  into  the 
highest  philanthropic  activities.  The  remarkable  revivals 
of  religion  that  then  occurred  resulted  in  the  sending 
forth  of  missionaries-  to  evangelize  heathen  nations,  just 
as  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  ancient  Antioch 
resulted  in  the  sending  forth  of  the  great  missionary- 
apostle  Paul,  and  his  companion,  Barnabas,  to  labor 
among  the  Gentiles. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  particular  occasion 
of  the  enterprise  in  England  for  foreign  missions  was  the 
publication  of  the  narratives  of  Cook's  voyages  in  the 
Pacific.  A  young  man  by  the  name  of  William  Carey, 
while  preaching  in  the  small  town  of  Moulton,  and  at 
the  same  time  working  as  a  cobbler  for  the  support  of 
his  family,  read  these  narratives,  and  with  a  large  map 
and  a  leather  globe,  which  he  himself  had  made,  de- 
scribed Cook's  voyages  to  his  pupils,  and  at  length  was 
fired  with  a  desire  to  carry  the  good  news  of  God  to  the 
islanders — who  had  most  hospitably  entertained  Cook 
and  had  been  maddened  by  his  injustice  to  kill  him.  So 
interested  did  Carey  become  in  the  Pacific  Islanders  that 
in  a  gathering  of  Baptist  ministers  he  proposed  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  evangelize  heathen 
countries.  To  this  proposition  Dr.  Ryland,  an  aged 
minister,  replied,  "Sit  down,  young  man.  When  God 
proposes  to  convert  the  heathen  he  will  do  it  without 
your  help  or  mine."  Dr.  Ryland  further  remarked  that 
' '  nothing  could  be  done  for  such  an  object  until  another 


OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY 


CHRISTIAN    MISSIONS   IN   THE    PACIFIC.         59 

Pentecost,  when  an  effusion  of  miraculous  gifts,  includ- 
ing the  gift  of  tongues,  would  give  effect  to  the  commis- 
sion of  Christ  as  at  first. "  But  the  young  man  was  not 
silenced,  and  at  length  succeeded,  by  impassioned  ap- 
peals to  the  public  and  by  sermons  preached  before  the 
Baptist  Association,  in  persuading  twelve  ministers  to 
unite  with  him  in  organizing  at  Kettering,  on  October  2, 
1792,  the  first  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  Great  Brit- 
ain. Fifty  years  afterwards  thousands  of  people  gath- 
ered at  Kettering  to  celebrate  the  jubilee  of  that  organi- 
zation, and  in  1892  a  more  notable  gathering  celebrated 
its  centennial. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  first  wish  of  Mr. 
Carey  was  to  go  as  a  missionary  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  to 
Tahiti,  and  that  the  first  plan  of  this  society  was  to  send 
him  thither.  But  about  this  time  a  Mr.  John  Thomas, 
a  surgeon  who  had  engaged  in  missionary  work  while  in 
the  employ  of  the  East  India  Company,  arrived  in  Lon- 
don seeking  a  missionary  assistant,  and  so  set  forth  the 
needs  of  India  that  the  plan  of  the  society  was  changed, 
and  William  Carey  arid  John  Thomas  were  sent  to  India. 

The  sublime  act  of  faith  of  these  two  men,  in  going 
as  voluntary  exiles  from  home  to  labor  for  a  heathen 
race,  kindled  a  fire  of  missionary  enthusiasm  throughout 
England.  It  was  remarked  that  the  Baptist  Society  had 
"a  gold  mine  in  India,"  but  that  it  seemed  almost  as 
deep  as  the  centre  of  the  earth.  Carey  replied,  "  I  will 
go  down  into  the  mine ;  but  the  Society  at  home  must 
hold  the  ropes. "  Others  besides  the  Baptists  soon  de- 
sired a  part  in  working  this  gold  mine, 


60  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

On  November  4,  1794,  a  company  of  ministers  of 
various  denominations  united  in  London  in  issuing  a 
circular  calling  for  a  convention  of  the  delegates  of  the 
churches  to  meet  in  London  on  the  22d,  23d,  and  24th 
days  of  the  ensuing  month,  to  consider  the  project  of 
forming  an  undenominational  missionary  society.  At  the 
time  appointed  great  multitudes  met  together,  and  two 
sermons  were  preached  each  day  by  eminent  divines  upon 
themes  pertinent  to  foreign  missions.  In  these  meetings 
"Christians  of  all  denominations  for  the  first  time  met 
together  in  the  same  place,  using  the  same  hymns  and 
prayers,  and  feeling  themselves  to  be  one.  Two  hundred 
ministers  sat  together  in  the  galleries.  One  of  the  lead- 
ers of  these  meetings  said,  '  We  are  called  together  for  the 
funeral  of  bigotry  ;  and  I  hope  it  will  be  buried  so  deep 
as  never  to  rise  again.'  Whereat  the  whole  vast  body 
could  scarce  refrain  from  one  general  shout  of  joy."  The 
London  Missionary  Society  was  then  formed, -composed 
of  Presbyterians,  Episcopalians,  and  Independents. 

It  was  declared  in  the  constitution  of  this  Society 
that  "the  design  of  the  Society  was  not  to  send  Presby- 
terianism,  Independency,  Episcopacy,  or  any  other  form 
of  church  order  and  government  (about  which  there  may 
be  difference  of  opinion  among  serious  persons),  but  the 
glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God  to  the  heathen  ;  and 
that  it  shall  be  left  (as  it  ought  to  be  left)  to  the  minds  of 
the  persons  whom  God  may  call  into  the  fellowship  of 
his  Son  from  among  them  to  assume  for  themselves  such 
form  of  church  government  as  to  them  shall  appear  most 
agreeable  to  the  Word  of  God. " 


CHRISTIAN   MISSIONS   IN   THE   PACIFIC.        6l 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  first  foreign  mission- 
ary society  in  America,  the  American  Board,  was  in  like 
manner  undenominational  at  its  origin.  It  may  be  said 
that,  as  at  the  origin  of  Christianity  the  infant  Church  set 
forth  with  the  gift  of  tongues  and  a  blessed  fellowship 
and  community  of  property,  pointing  forward  to  the  fu- 
ture union  of  all  mankind  in  fraternity  and  love,  so  the 
foreign  mission  work  began  with  a  fellowship  of  all  Chris- 
tians, pointing  forward  to  the  ftiture  church-union  in 
which  alone  foreign  missions  will  finally  be  completely 
successful. 

The  attention  of  the  London  Missionary  Society  was 
drawn  at  its  very  origin  to  the  islands  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  as  a  promising  field  for  missions.  Glowing  ac- 
counts were  given  of  the  South  Sea  Islands  as  ' '  very  ter- 
restrial paradises,  the  people  loving  and  lovable  children 
of  nature."  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  Haweis,  one  of  the  found- 
ers and  most  liberal  supporters  of  the  Society,  delivered 
an  address  upon  the  question  "  In  what  part  of  the  world 
they  should  commence  their  work, "  and  drew  a  compar- 
ison between  the  climates,  the  governments,  the  lan- 
guages, and  the  religions  of  heathen  countries  ;  and  con- 
cluded that  of  all  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  the  South 
Sea  Islands  presented  the  fewest  difficulties  and  the  fair- 
est prospect  of  success.  Dazzled  by  the  pleasing  picture 
he  had  drawn,  the  London  Society  resolved  without  delay 
to  commence  a  mission  to  the  South  Sea  Islands. 

For  this  purpose  this  Society  purchased  a  ship  at  a 
cost  of  $24,375,  and  equipped  her  and  furnished  supplies 
for  her  long  voyage  at  an  additional  expense  of  $34,000. 


62  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

Capt.  James  Wilson,  ' '  a  worthy  Christian  gentleman  who 
had  retired  in  affluence  from  the  East  India  service," 
volunteered  his  services  to  command  the  vessel.  Twenty 
chosen  missionaries  were  then  set  apart  for  the  mission 
to  Tahiti.  Six  of  them  were  married  men,  with  whom 
were  two  children.  Only  four  of  them  were  ordained 
ministers.  One  was  a  physician  and  the  others  were 
artisans.  "  Thousands  of  people  joined  in  the  novel 
and  most  impressive  services  of  their  consecration  to  the 
missionary  enterprise ;  and  no  less  than  ten  clergymen, 
Presbyterian,  Episcopalian,  Independent,  Seceder,  and 
Methodist,  shared  in  the  exercises.  It  was  remarked 
that  in  no  instance  had  such  a  spirit  of  prayer  and  sup- 
plication been  poured  out  upon  the  churches,  or  such 
general  approbation  been  discovered,  as  in  the  inception 
of  this  mission  enterprise. " 

On  the  23d  of  September,  1796,  the  Duff,  flying  an 
ensign  with  a  figure,  on  a  blue  field,  of  a  dove  with  an 
olive  branch  in  her  mouth,  sailed  from  Portsmouth  with 
these  first  missionaries  for  the  islands  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean. 


RAR 

OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY 
CALJF225 


THE   SOCIETY   ISLANDS.  65 


CHAPTER    IV. 


THE    SOCIETY    ISLANDS. 

THE  island  of  Tahiti,  to  which  the  first  missionaries 
of  the  Pacific  were  sent,  is  one  of  a  group  called  the 
Society  Islands  ;  so  named  by  Capt.  Cook  in  honor  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  London.  This  group  is  situated 
between  latitudes  16°  and  18°  South,  and  longitudes 
148°  and  155°  West.  It  consists  of  thirteen  islands  and 
several  small  islets,  and  is  divided  by  a  channel  sixty 
miles  wide  into  two  clusters  ;  the  eastern,  called  the  Wind- 
ward or  Georgian  Islands,  comprising  six  islands,  the 
western,  called  the  Leeward  or  Society  Islands,  comprising 
seven  islands.  Their  aggregate  area  is  650  square  miles. 

With  the  exception  of  the  coral  islets  in  the  extreme 
northwest  these  islands  are  of  volcanic  origin  ;  as  is 
indicated  by  their  lavas,  basalt,  and  pumice-stone.  In 
general  appearance  the  volcanic  islands  resemble  each 
other.  A  high  mountain  crowned  with  steep  peaks 
occupies  the  interior ;  on  all  sides  steep  ridges  descend 
to  the  sea  or  to  sloping  plains ;  and  over  all,  mountains, 
valleys  and  plains,  spreads  a  most  luxuriant  robe  of 
tropical  vegetation.  Around  most  of  these  islands  are 
barrier  reefs,  situated  from  a  few  yards  to  five  miles  from 
the  shore. 

Tahiti  lies  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Windward  or 
Georgian  cluster,  and  is  the  largest  island  of  the  group, 


66  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

having  an  area  of  412  square  miles.  It  is  composed  of 
two  distinct  portions,  united  by  an  isthmus  which  is  a 
mile  wide  and  of  only  fifty  feet  elevation  above  the 
ocean.  The  southern  portion  is  called  Tairabu,  and 
measures  six  by  twelve  miles.  The  northern  portion  is 
called  Porionuu,  and  measures  twenty  by  twenty-three 
miles.  At  the  northeast  extremity  of  Porionuu  is  the 
chief  town  of  the  group,  Papeete,  which  is  the  capital  of 
the  French  possessions  in  the  Pacific  and  the  emporium 
of  the  commerce  of  all  the  surrounding  groups.  It  lies 
on  the  crescent-formed  shore  at  the  head  of  the  Matavai 
Bay,  embowered  in  beautiful  tropical  vegetation,  with  a 
background  of  enchanting  woods  and  grand  mountains. 
From  a  beach  of  white  sand  a  continuous  forest  of  wav- 
ing palms  and  vine-clad  trees  spreads  to  verdant  ridges 
and  deep  ravines,  and  on  to  the  mountains,  Orohena, 
7,250  feet  high,  and  Aorai,  6,576  feet  high.  The  latter  is 
jagged  at  its  summit  with  rocky  spires  so  as  to  resemble 
a  royal  crown,  and  for  this  reason  called  "La  Diademe" 
A  broad  green  road,  called  the  ' '  Broom  Road, "  runs 
around  this  island  close  to  the  sea,  through  districts 
' '  which  seem  like  one  vast  orchard  of  mango,  bread- 
fruit, feis,  orange-trees,  sugar-cane,  papayas  and  cocoa- 
nut-palms,  together  forming  a  succession  of  the  very 
richest  foliage  it  is  possible  to  conceive."  The  valleys 
of  this  island,  especially  Hautana,  Matavai  and  Apai- 
ano,  are  very  beautiful. 

In  all  the  Society  Islands  it  is  difficult  to  travel  out- 
side of  the  roads,  so  dense  is  the  vegetation  and  so  im- 
passable are  the  gorges  and  precipices.  It  is  said  also 


THE   SOCIETY   ISLANDS.  67 

that  travelling  on  horseback  is  unsafe  because  "the 
land-crabs  have  literally  riddled  the  by-paths."  These 
crabs  are  sometimes  found  in  the  huts  of  the  natives  and 
under  the  mats  of  sleepers  at  night. 

To  voyagers  who  for  weeks  had  no  surroundings  but 
the  blue  ocean  and  the  sky  above  the  wonderful  beauty 
of  this  island  is  quite  enrapturing.  One  writer  says, 
' '  The  scenery  of  that  island  will  live  for  ever  in  my 
thoughts  as  some  splendid  dream  of  beauty,  as  early  one 
morning  I  entered  the  port  of  Papeete.  Before  me  were 
great  mountains  of  every  shade  of  blue,  pink,  gray,  and 
purple,  torn  and  broken  into  every  conceivable  fantastic 
shape,  with  deep,  dark,  mysterious  gorges,  showing 
almost  black  by  contrast  with  the  surrounding  bright- 
ness, precipitous  peaks  and  pinnacles  rising  one  above 
the  other  until  lost  in  the  heavy  masses  of  clouds  they 
impaled,  while  below,  stretching  from  the  base  of  the 
mountains  to  the  shore,  was  a  forest  of  tropical  trees 
with  the  huts  and  houses  of  the  town  peeping  out  be- 
tween." 

Two  miles  west  of  Tahiti  is  Moorea,  or  Eimeo,  a 
small  but  lofty  and  very  picturesque  island.  Its  moun- 
tain, Afareaitu,  3,986  feet  in  height,  has  formerly  been 
rent  asunder  by  violent  volcanic  convulsions,  leaving 
stupendous  upright  splinters  which  have  been  jocosely 
called  "Asses'  ears." 

Mr.  Ellis  says  of  this  island  :  "  In  the  varied  forms  of 
its  mountains,'  the  verdure  with  which  they  are  clothed, 
and  the  general  romantic  and  beautiful  character  of 
its  scenery  Moorea  surpasses  every  other  island  of  the 


68  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

Georgian  or  Society  groups.  A  reef,  like  a  ring,  ex- 
tends around  it  two  miles  from  the  shore.  On  this 
reef  are  small  verdant  islets,  appearing  like  emerald  gems 
of  the  ocean,  one  opposite  Afareaitu  on  the  east  side,  and 
two  south  of  Papetoai. " 

The  author  of  ' '  South  Sea  Bubbles  "  says  :  "As  seen 
from  Tahiti.  Moorea  is  a  wonderfully  beautiful  island, 
peaked  and  jagged  in  a  way  seldom  seen.  The  harbor, 
Openohu,  is  a  gorge,  and  one  of  the  wildest  gorges  I 
have  ever  seen.  Green  precipices  rise  upwards  of  two 
thousand  feet  sheer  from  the  water,  fringed  round  their 
feet  by  cocoanut  and  orange-trees.  Far  up  in  the 
green  cliffs  may  be  seen  the  large  leaves  of  thefet\  or 
wild  plantain.  One  of  the  highest  and  most  acute  peaks 
is  perforated  right  through,  just  below  the  summit,  the 
natives  say  by  an  ancient  hero  throwing  his  spear 
through  the  moutain  peak. " 

Several  of  the  Leeward  Islands  are  described  as  no 
less  picturesque  and  beautiful.  Huahine  and  Raiatea 
are  noble  islands  encircled  by  one  coral  reef.  In  this 
reef,  at  the  northeast  point  of  Raiatea,  opposite  the 
harbor,  Utumaoro,  are  three  green  islets.  Raiatea  con- 
sists of  two  parts  connected  by  an  isthmus,  and  is  com- 
pletely covered  with  verdure,  from  the  sea  to  the  sum- 
mits of  the  mountains  ;  the  hibiscus  and  other  shrubs 
overhanging  the  salt  water  of  the  harbor. 

Of  Borabora  the  writer  just  quoted  says:  "This 
splendid  island  rises  like  a  giant's  castle  out  of  the  sea. 
At  a  distance  it  seems  split  into  two  parts,  a  tower  and 
a  steeple  ;  but  when  approached  the  two  blend  into  one. 


o 

OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY 
^ 


THE  SOCIETY  ISLANDS.  71 

There  is  an  extinct  volcanic  crater  in  its  summit.  The 
harbor  is  most  magnificently  beautiful,  overhung  by  a 
heap  of  rock  3,000  feet  high,  noble  basaltic  cliffs  stand- 
ing from  a  perfect  cascade  of  verdure.  Nowhere  but 
in  these  islands  have  I  ever  seen  positively  richly  green 
cliifs.  I  think  Borabora  is  the  most  magnificently 
beautiful  piece  of  rock-scenery  I  have  ever  seen. " 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Society  Islands  are  the  Poly- 
nesian race,  who,  as  has  been  mentioned,  occupy  the 
eastern  portion  of  the  Pacific.  They  are  physically  a 
very  fine  people.  De  Quatrefages,  in  a  table  giving  the 
stature  of  different  races  of  men,  puts  the  natives  of 
Samoa  and  Tonga  as  the  largest  people  in  the  world. 
He  gives  the  average  height  of  this  race  as  5  feet,  9.92 
inches.  The  Society  Islanders  compare  well  in  size  with 
the  Samoans  and  Tongans,  while  in  general  symmetry 
of  form  they  are  unsurpassed. 

A  brief  description  of  the  Tahitians  will  answer  for 
that  of  all  the  Polynesians  of  the  Pacific.  The  Tahitians 
are  a  brown  race,  varying  in  color  from  a  light  olive  to  a 
swarthy  brown  according  to  the  amount  of  their  previous 
exposure  to  the  sun.  Their  hair  is  usually  raven  black, 
and  straight,  wavy,  or  curly ;  their  eyes  are  black  and 
expressive ;  their  lips  of  a  little  more  than  medium 
thickness ;  their  noses  rather  wide ;  their  foreheads 
fairly  high  and  rather  narrow.  "  Their  women  rank  with 
the  most  beautiful  in  the  Pacific." 

In  disposition  the  Tahitians  are  affable,  light-hearted, 
and  generous,  but  fickle,  and  under  provocation  deceit- 
ful, irritable,  and  brutal. 


72  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC.  - 

At  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  the  missionaries  the 
Tahitians  were  wearing  their  primitive  costume,  which 
consisted  of  an  oblong  piece  of  bark-cloth,  the  tiputa, 
with  a  hole  in  the  centre  for  the  head,  a  plain  piece  of 
cloth  around  the  loins,  and  a  malo,  or  T  bandage. 

The  women  wore  the  parau,  which  was  one  piece  of 
cloth,  two  and  a  half  yards  wide  by  eleven  long,  wrapped 
several  times  around  the  waist  so  as  to  hang  down  to  the 
knees.  They  also  wore  a  shawl,  called  the  ahaifara,  over 
the  shoulders.  They  often  wore  brilliant  flowers  in  their 
hair  and  fragrant  garlands  and  necklaces.  In  the  heat 
of  the  day  they  were  uncovered  to  the  waist,  and  the 
men  wore  only  the  malo.  In  times  of  rain  they  wore 
matting  instead  of  cloth.  At  night  their  clothing  served 
for  bedding.  The  children  went  naked  until  six  or  seven 
years  old.  ' '  The  chiefs  wore  also  short  feather-cloaks 
and  beautiful  semicircular  breastplates  dexterously  in- 
terwoven with  the  black  plumage  of  the  frigate-bird, 
with  crimson  feathers,  and  with  sharks'  teeth. " 

Mr.  George  Foster  tells  of  having  once  witnessed,  in 
1777,  what  he  called  a  most  magnificent  sight.  Entering 
one  of  the  harbors  of  Tahiti  he  saw  "a  fleet  of  159  large 
war-canoes  with  170  small  canoes  arrayed  along  the 
shore,  manned  with  1,500  warriors  dressed  in  their 
robes,  targets  and  towering  helmets  :  while  on  the  beach 
were  4,000  warriors  about  to  embark.  The  targets 
were  of  wicker-work  covered  with  feathers  and  sharks' 
teeth ;  the  helmets  were  five  feet  high,  closely  covered 
with  glossy  bluish  green  feathers  of  a  sort  of  pigeon,  with 
an  elegant  border  of  white  plumes,  and  with  a  prodigious 


THE   SOCIETY   ISLANDS.  73 

number  of  the  long  tail-feathers  of  tropic-birds  diverging 
from  its  edges  in  a  radiant  line  resembling  that  glory  of 
light  with  which  painters  commonly  ornament  the 
heads  of  angels  or  saints."  These  warriors  were  prepar- 
ing for  an  expedition  against  Moorea.  The  expedition 
failed  and  nearly  all  the  fleet  was  captured. 

The  Tahitians  showed  no  little  skill  in  manufactur- 
ing bark-cloth,  mats,  fishing-tackle,  canoes,  and  house- 
hold furniture.  They  sometimes  made  bales  of  cloth, 
all  in  one  piece,  two  hundred  yards  long  and  four  yards 
wide,  from  strips  of  bark  one  and  a  half  inches  wide  and 
four  feet  long. 

Their  canoes  were  made  of  logs  of  trees,  hollowed 
out  by  sharp  stones  and  by  fire,  and  were  either  double 
or  single,  with  outriggers.  The  sterns  were  sometimes 
from  15  to  1 8  feet  high,  ornamented  with  figures  of 
birds  or  gods. 

Their  houses  were  little  more  than  thatched  roofs 
supported  by  posts  and  rafters.  There  were  three  rows 
of  posts — one  in  the  centre  and  two  at  the  sides.  Pan- 
danus  leaves  were  used  for  thatch,  and  the  ridge-pole  was 
bound  over  with  ferns  or  grass.  The  lower  part  of  the 
house  was  open  to  the  height  of  about  four  feet  above 
the  ground.  The  floors  were  covered  with  long  dried 
grass  or  mats.  The  houses  generally  measured  n  by 
24  feet.  One  of  the  king's  houses  at  Waitowate  was 
397  feet  long  and  48  wide  and  21  high. 

The  staple  food  of  the  Tahitians  was  the  breadfruit ; 
but  besides  this  they  subsisted  on  yams,   taro,   sweet- 
potatoes,  plantains,   and  a  few  varieties  of  fruit.       The 
4 


74  THE  ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

quiet  waters  inclosed  by  their  reefs  afforded  an  abun- 
dant supply  of  fish.  They  cooked  their  food  by  burying 
it,  well-wrapped  with  leaves,  on  heated  stones  in  the 
ground.  They  obtained  fire  by  rubbing  together  sticks 
of  wood. 

Like  the  rest  of  the  Polynesians,  the  Tahitians  wor- 
shipped innumerable  idols  with  horrid  orgies  and  human 
sacrifices.  Almost  every  man  had  his  special  god,  but 
there  were  several  principal  gods  :  Taaroa  (corresponding 
to  Kaneloa  of  Hawaii),  Tane  (corresponding  to  Kane  of 
Hawaii)  and  Oro,  the  national  god  of  Tahiti  (correspond- 
ing to  Lono  of  Hawaii).  The  idols  measured  from  a 
few  inches  to  six  feet  long,  and  were  ornamented  with 
sennit  and  red  feathers.  It  was  supposed  that  the  gods 
entered  them  at  certain  seasons,  and  in  consequence  of 
certain  ceremonies. 

The  Tahitians  also  worshipped  the  spirits  of  their 
deceased  ancestors,  called  Oromatuas  (in  Hawaii,  Auma- 
kuas).  These  they  invoked  in  sickness,  and  for  ven- 
geance against  their  enemies  ;  in  which  latter  case  they 
sought  to  obtain  something  from  the  victim  they  would 
destroy — parings  of  the  nails,  locks  of  hair,  or  saliva — by 
which  to  set  the  demon  on  the  track  of  the  victim  ;  a 
method  followed  in  Hawaii,  the  New  Hebrides,  and 
other  Polynesian  Islands. 

The  places  of  Tahitian  worship  were  piles  of  stones, 
called  morat,  built  in  pyramidal  form,  with  flights  of  steps 
at  the  sides  ;  on  these  the  idols  were  erected  and  the  of- 
ferings laid.  A  morai  at  Atahuru  measured  270  feet  by 
ninety-four  wide  and  fifty  high.  Other  sacred  places  were 


THE  SOCIETY   ISLANDS.  77 

the  platforms  on  which,  under  sheds,  they  exposed  the 
bodies  of  the  dead  ;  for  they  did  not  bury  their  dead, 
but  partially  embalmed  them,  and  placed  them  on  these 
platforms  with  provisions. 

By  the  Tahitian  religion  the  women  were  forbidden 
to  eat  with  the  men.  The  husband  and  the  wife  made 
separate  fires,  kept  their  food  separate,  and  ate  apart,  the 
wife  generally  in  another  hut.  The  women  were  also 
tabooed  from  eating  pork,  fowls,  bananas,  and  several 
kinds  of  fish. 

Immorality,  polygamy  and  infanticide  prevailed  in 
Tahiti  to  an  incredible  extent.  It  was  estimated  by  the 
first  missionaries  that  two-thirds  of  the  children  were 
put  to  death  at  birth.  This  was  generally  done  by 
strangling,  or  by  piercing  with  a  bamboo.  Rev.  John 
Williams  once  asked  three  women,  whom  he  casually 
met,  whether  they  had  killed  any  of  their  children.  One 
replied  that  she  had  killed  nine,  another  seven,  and  the 
other  three.  After  the  abolition  of  idolatry,  a  chief  con- 
fessed in  a  large  assembly  that  he  had  been  the  father  of 
nineteen  children,  and  that  he  had  murdered  them  all  ; 
and  he  wept  at  remembrance  of  their  deaths.  A  chief- 
tainess  was  bitterly  troubled  in  the  hour  of  death  by  remem- 
brance of  having  put  to  death  her  sixteen  children. 

Wars  were  almost  incessant  in  Tahiti,  and  were  most 
cruel  and  destructive.  During  the  first  fifteen  years  of 
the  mission  there  were  ten  wars.  Just  before  the  arrival 
of  the  missionaries  there  was  an  inter-tribal  war  which 
resulted  in  the  conquest  of  the  whole  island  by  Pomare 
and  his  son  Otu. 


78  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

The  immorality  of  the  Tahitians  reached  its  climax  in 
a  strange  organization  of  men  and  women,  called  Areoi, 
who  lived  together  indiscriminately  without  marriage, 
spent  their  time  in  licentious  dancing  and  feasting  from 
village  to  village,  and  killed  all  their  children.  They 
kept  up  their  organization  only  by  initiating  new  mem- 
bers. 

The  vices  of  the  Tahitians  were  vastly  increased  by 
the  coming  of  the  white  men,  who  gave  free  rein  to  their 
avarice  and  sensuality.  The  women  thronged  every  ship 
to  obtain  trinkets  and  baubles,  and  especially  bits  of  iron 
hoop  and  nails,  which  were  considered  more  precious 
than  gold. 

Captain  Cook  said  of  the  immorality  of  the  Tahiti- 
ans, for  which  his  crew  were  partly  responsible,  ' '  There 
is  a  scale  of  dissolute  sensuality  which  these  people  have 
ascended,  wholly  unknown  to  every  other  nation,  and 
which  no  imagination  could  possibly  conceive."  Rev. 
William  Ellis  remarked,  "Awfully  dark,  indeed,  was 
their  moral  character,  and  notwithstanding  the  apparent 
mildness  of  their  disposition,  and  the  cheerful  vivacity  of 
their  conversation,  no  portion  of  the  human  race  was 
ever  perhaps  sunk  lower  in  brutal  licentiousness  and 
moral  degradation  than  this  isolated  people." 

Such  were  the  islands  and  such  the  people  to  whom 
the  missionaries  on  the  Duff  were  voyaging.  These 
missionaries  were  obliged  by  violent  gales  in  the  South 
Atlantic  to  change  their  course  and  to  round  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  instead  of  Cape  Horn,  and  did  not  arrive  at 
Tahiti  till  March  4th,  1797,  after  a  voyage  of  six  months 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 


THE  SOCIETY  ISLANDS.  8 1 

and  nineteen  days.  Because  of  their  course  around  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  their  reckoning  of  the  days  of  the 
week  differed  by  one  day  from  that  of  the  American 
missionaries  of  Hawaii,  their  Sunday  coming  on  the 
Saturday  of  the  American  missionaries. 

Hardly  had  their  little  vessel  come  to  anchor  off  the 
shores  of  Tahiti  when  seventy-four  canoes  came  off  to 
her,  and  soon  a  hundred  savages  were  capering  with  de- 
light upon  her  decks.  It  was  the  Sabbath-day;  and 
therefore  the  missionaries,  instead  of  bartering  with  the 
natives,  held  a  service  of  song  and  prayer,  while  the  na- 
tives looked  on  in  silent  wonder. 

On  the  next  day  several  of  the  missionaries  went  in 
a  boat  to  examine  the  island.  About  five  hundred  natives 
gathered  on  the  shore  to  receive  them,  and,  wading  into 
the  sea,  dragged  the  boat  up  on  the  beach,  and  carried 
them  ashore  on  their  backs.  The  king,  Otu,  and  his 
queen,  Tetua,  came  to  welcome  them,  borne  on  the 
shoulders  of  natives  ;  for,  according  to  their  customs, 
whatever  the  king  set  foot  upon  became  his,  whether  it 
was  land  or  the  deck  of  a  vessel.  There  were  two  white 
men  residing  on  the  island,  dressed,  or  rather  undressed, 
like  the  natives.  By  the  aid  of  one  of  these,  a  Swede, 
who  had  escaped  from  shipwreck  to  the  island,  Captain 
Wilson  informed  the  king,  Otu,  of  the  purposes  of  the 
missionaries.  The  king  expressed  himself  as  pleased, 
and  gave  them  a  building  one  hundred  and  eight  feet  long 
by  forty-eight  wide,  and  assigned  them  a  large  district, 
called  Matavai,  in  which  to  reside  without  dispossessing 
the  natives.  As  soon  as  the  lower,  unthatched,  part  of 


82  THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

the  house  was  enclosed,  the  missionaries  disembarked, 
and  entered  the  house  with  prayer  and  thanksgiving  to 
God.  The  Duff  soon  afterwards  sailed  away,  taking  ten 
missionaries  to  the  Tonga  Islands.  After  her  return  she 
took  one  missionary  to  the  Marquesas  Islands,  and  one, 
by  his  own  request,  to  England. 

The  missionaries  located  on  Tahiti  were  Revs.  James 
Cover  and  wife,  John  Eyrie  and  wife,  John  Jefferson, 
Thomas  Lewis,  and  Messrs.  Henry  Bicknell,  wheelwright, 
Benjamin  Broomhall,  harness-maker,  John  Cock,  car- 
penter, Samuel  Clode,  gardener,  John  Gilham,  surveyor, 
William  Henry,  carpenter,  and  wife,  Peter  Hodges,  bra- 
zier, and  wife,  Rowland  HarTell,  weaver,  and  wife,  Ed- 
ward Main,  tailor,  Henry  Nott,  bricklayer,  Francis 
Oakes,  shoemaker,  James  Puckey,  carpenter,  William 
Puckey,  carpenter,  and  William  Smith,  linen-draper. 
There  were  also  two  children — James  Cover,  twelve  years, 
and  Thomas  Haffell,  two  years  old. 

The  report  made  by  Captain  Wilson  about  his  voy- 
age, after  his  return  to  England,  excited  so  much  enthu- 
siasm that  in  the  latter  part  of  the  following  year  the 
Duff  was  again  sent  forth  with  twenty-nine  more  mis- 
sionaries for  the  Pacific.  But  the  Duff  was  captured  by 
a  French  privateer,  and  all  the  missionaries  on  board  of 
her,  except  one  who  died,  after  many  distressing  adven- 
tures found  their  way  back  to  England. 

However  romantic  k  may  have  seemed  to  engage  in 
this  benevolent  enterprise  in  the  beautiful  islands  of  the 
Pacific  it  must  have  soon  seemed  hardly  endurable,  under 
the  privations  and  perils  the  missionaries  experienced. 


THE  SOCIETY   ISLANDS.  83 

At  that  time  the  wars  of  Great  Britain  with  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  made  it  difficult  for  the  London  Society  to 
communicate  with  them  ;  and  for  five  years  no  supplies 
nor  letters  from  England  came  to  them.  During  the 
seven  following  years  letters  and  supplies  came  only  twice, 
and  once  the  supplies,  when  they  arrived,  had  been  spoiled 
by  salt  water.  During  these  years  they  suffered  from 
want  of  the  very  necessaries  of  life.  ' '  Their  shoes  wore 
out,  their  clothes  became  threadbare,  tea  and  sugar 
were  only  remembered  as  luxuries  of  the  past. "  Their 
situation  was  made  worse  by  the  neglect  of  the  king,  who 
was  disappointed  in  his  hope  of  getting  presents  from 
them,  and  ceased  to  provide  them  with  food.  He  re- 
marked that  they  gave  him  plenty  of  the  Word  of  God, 
but  very  few  axes,  knives,  or  scissors.  Sometimes 
they  could  obtain  food  only  by  sending  a  boy  to  the 
mountains  for  wild  fruit  or  to  the  breadfruit  trees  of  a 
friendly  chief.  The  Swede,  Peter  Hagerstine,  whom  they 
had  employed  as  an  interpreter  in  their  conference  with 
the  king  and  in  their  preaching,  sought  to  influence  the 
king  against  them.  Once  when  passing  with  the  king 
near  their  house,  while  they  were  kneeling  in  prayer,  he 
suggested  that  it  would  be  easy  at  such  a  time  to  destroy 
them  all  and  appropriate  their  property.  Their  situation 
also,  without  weapons  of  defence  and  with  tender  wives 
and  children,  amongst  the  warring  natives,  was  about  as 
perilous  as  that  of  a  child  in  a  menagerie  of  wild 
animals. 

Soon  after  their  arrival  the  chiefs   of  the  opposite 
side  of  the  island  revolted  against  the  king ;  the  war  was 


84  THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

carried  into  the  district  of  Matavai,  and  the  half-clad 
savages,  appearing  in  their  disfigurement  of  paint  and  with 
their  fierce  war  cries  more  like  devils  than  men,  made 
their  beautiful  surroundings  resemble  the  infernal  regions. 
Once  four  of  the  missionaries  were  seized  and  stripped 
by  the  natives,  and  dragged  into  the  river,  and  they  bare- 
ly escaped  to  the  opposite  banks. 

Alarmed  by  these  perils,  and  discouraged  also  because 
there  were  no  signs  of  success  in  their  work,  all  but  two 
of  the  missionaries  now  proposed  to  leave  the  islands. 
The  king  besought  them  to  remain,  and  seven  of  them 
did  so  ;  while  the  rest  went  by  way  of  Huahine  to  New 
South  Wales. 

Only  five  missionaries  now  remained.  But  they  per- 
severed in  their  unpromising  work,  and  soon  succeeded 
with  the  aid  of  a  few  chiefs  in  building  the  first  chapel 
erected  for  Christian  worship  in  the  Pacific.  It  was  dedi- 
cated on  March  5th,  1800;  three  years  after  their  arrival. 
King  Pomare,  desiring  to  show  favor  on  this  occasion, 
sent  a  fish  as  an  offering  to  Jesus  Christ,  requesting  that 
it  should  be  hung  up  in  the  chapel. 

In  June,  1801,  a  reinforcement  of  eight  more  mission- 
aries arrived  in  the  Royal  Admiral,  Capt.  Wilson,  making 
the  whole  number  now  twelve.  Mr.  Nott  had  mastered 
the  language  sufficiently  to  be  able  to  preach,  and  now 
with  Mr.  Elder  made  the  first  tour  of  the  island,  preach- 
ing in  thirty  villages.  Some  of  the  natives  seemed  quite 
affected  by  the  preaching,  especially  the  accompanying 
servants,  who  by  attending  the  meetings  at  every  village 
gained  considerable  knowledge  of  gospel  truth. 


THE  SOCIETY  ISLANDS.  87 

But  unhappily,  when  now  a  faint  gleam  of  encourage-* 
ment  was  appearing,  a  fierce  civil  war  again  broke  out. 
King  Pomare  had  forcibly  removed  the  national  idol  called 
Oro,  a  mere  shapeless  log  six  feet  long,  from  the  district 
Atehuru,  where  it  had  always  been  kept ;  and  the  natives 
of  this  district,  with  other  tribes,  went  to  war  to  recover 
it.  Providentially,  there  were  twenty-three  English  sea- 
men on  the  island,  most  of  whom  had  recently  escaped 
from  shipwreck  ;  they  came  together  to  the  house  of  the 
missionaries  to  make  common  defense  against  the  rebels. 
With  their  aid  the  missionaries  pulled  down  their  chapel, 
to  prevent  its  being  set  on  fire  or  used  as  a  place  of  refuge 
for  the  enemy,  cut  down  their  breadfruit  trees,  and  made 
a  stockade  around  their  house.  Four  brass  cannon,  ob- 
tained from  a  wrecked  ship,  were  placed  in  the  upper 
rooms  of  the  house ;  and  by  turns  the  seamen  and  the 
missionaries  stood  guard.  The  rebels  at  length,  seeing 
the  preparation  for  defense,  desisted  from  the  war. 

In  1803  King  Pomare  died;  and  his  son,  Otu,  be- 
came king,  and  assumed  the  title,  Pomare  II.  The  first 
Pomare  had  been  a  most  vicious  and  inhuman  savage. 
It  was  estimated  by  the  missionaries  that  during  his 
reign  of  thirty  years  he  had  sacrificed  two  thousand  human 
victims  as  offerings  to  his  idols.  Pomare  II.  at  first  ap- 
peared to  be  little  better,  and  committed  so  many  acts  of 
violence  that  in  1805,  after  eight  years  of  apparently 
fruitless  labor,  six  missionaries  removed  from  Tahiti  to 
Huahine. 

On  the  6th  of  November,  1808,  another  rebellion 
broke  out ;  and  finally  Pomare  was  defeated,  the  house 


88  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

« of  the  missionaries  destroyed,  and  their  printing  types 
were  melted  for  bullets.  By  Pomare's  advice  the  mission- 
aries now  fled  to  the  other  islands  ;  and  on  the  26th  of  Oc- 
tober, 1809,  they  all,  except  Mr.  Nott  and  Mr.  Hay  ward, 
went  to  Port  Jackson,  New  South  Wales.  The  mission 
now  seemed  to  be  broken  up,  only  two  missionaries  re- 
maining as  '  *  the  forlorn  hope. "  These  felt  more  than 
.  ever  before  that  there  was  no  success  for  them  except 
through  divine  aid. 

But  light  was  about  to  dawn.  The  reading  of  trans- 
lations of  the  New  Testament  was  having  an  effect  on 
the  people.  As  a  missionary  once  read  the  words,  "  God 
so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life, "  a  native  exclaimed,  ' '  Is  that  true  ? " 
When  assured  that  it  was  true  he  replied,  "  Your  God 
is  unlike  our  gods.  Your  God  has  love ;  our  gods 
have  only  cruelty ;  and  we  make  offerings  to  them  only 
to  propitiate  them.  But,"  he  continued,  "your  God 
has  love  for  you,  not  for  us."  The  missionary  assured 
him  that  the  proffers  of  the  gospel  were  for  him  and  all 
his  people.  He  was  greatly  affected,  and  remained  long 
in  deep  meditation. 

King  Pomare  also  now  became  interested,  and  attend- 
ed the  preaching  more  regularly,  and  sent  a  message  to 
the  missionaries  at  Port  Jackson  expressing  deep  sorrow 
at  their  absence  and  entreating  them  to  return.  In  the 
latter  part  of  the  year,  1811,  five  of  them,  Messrs.  Bick- 
nell,  Davies,  Henry,  Scott  and  Wilson,  returned,  and  re- 
sided with  Messrs.  Nott  and  Hayward  at  Moorea,  in  the 


OTU,  KING  OF  TAHITI. 


CEDING  MATAVAI  TO  THE  MISSION. 


THE   SOCIETY   ISLANDS.  gi 

district  of  Papetoai,  whither  King  Pomare  had  fled  from 
Tahiti. 

About  this  time  King  Pomare  made  a  striking  test  of 
the  power  of  his  false  gods.  When  a  turtle,  which  was 
considered  a  sacred  animal,  was  brought  to  him  for  food, 
instead  of  making  the  customary  offering  of  a  part  of  it  to 
the  idol  in  the  temple  before  eating  it,  he  gave  orders  to 
bake  it  at  once,  and  when  it  was  prepared  proceeded  to 
eat  it.  The  natives  watched  him  with  horror,  expecting 
to  see  him  writhe  in  convulsions,  and  when  they  saw  that 
no  harm  came  to  him  were  much  shaken  in  their  belief  re- 
specting idolatry. 

King  Pomare  now  urged  Tapoa,  king  of  Raiatea,  and 
several  chiefs  of  that  island,  who  were  visiting  Tahiti,  to 
unite  with  him  in  renouncing  idolatry.  One  of  these 
chiefs,  a  brother  of  Tapoa,  went  a  step  further  than  Po- 
mare, and  burnt  his  idol,  and  ate  breadfruit  baked  in  its 
ashes. 

Pomare  now  returned  by  invitation  to  resume  the 
government  of  Tahiti,  and  there  labored  to  dissuade  the 
people  from  worshipping  idols,  and  to  enlighten  them 
about  the  true  religion.  When  the  missionaries  heard 
what  he  was  doing  they  sent  two  of  their  number, 
Messrs.  Scott  and  Hayward,  to  aid  him.  In  the  morn- 
ing after  their  arrival  Mr.  Scott  heard  a  native  among  the 
bushes  near  their  lodging  engaged  in  prayer.  It  was 
the  first  native  voice  in  praise  and  prayer  that  he  had 
ever  heard,  and  he  listened  almost  entranced  and  with 
tears  of  joy.  The  name  of  the  native  was  Oito.  He  was 
awakened  to  interest  about  the  Christian  religion  by  re- 


92  THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

marks  made  by  the  king,  and  had  applied  for  counsel  to 
a  man  by  the  name  of  Tuahine,  who  had  been  a  servant 
of  the  missionaries,  and  with  him  and  a  number  of  others 
had  renounced  idolatry  and  commenced  the  practice  of 
secret  prayer. 

The  missionaries  now  took  Tuahine  and  Oito  to 
Moorea,  and  with  them  made  a  tour  of  that  island.  On 
the  25th  of  July,  1813,  they  dedicated  a  new  chapel, 
which  they  had  built  at  the  request  of  Pomare.  During 
the  ceremony  of  dedication  they  gave  notice  that  on  the 
following  day  a  meeting  would  be  held  for  those  who 
would  be  willing  to  renounce  idolatry  and  worship  the 
true  God.  The  result  was  that  thirty-one  natives  made 
Christian  confession  ;  and  in  a  few  days  eleven  more 
forsook  their  idols  and  covenanted  to  worship  Jehovah. 
A  priest  now,  by  the  name  of  Patii,  announced  that  on 
the  following  day  he  would  burn  his  idols.  At  the  time 
appointed  a  great  number  of  the  natives  came  together 
to  witness  the  performance,  and  were  deeply  impressed, 
as  he  brought  out  his  images  one  by  one,  tore  off  their 
coverings  of  cinet  and  red  feathers,  and  burned  them, 
calling  upon  the  people  to  witness  their  inability  to  help 
themselves. 

These  first  successes  of  the  missionaries  occurred  after 
a  long  "night  of  sixteen  years  of  toil."  But  the  tri- 
umphs that  followed  throughout  all  the  Pacific  were 
worth  all  the  toil  and  suffering  they  cost. 

The  devil  of  idolatry,  however,  did  not  go  out  of  the 
Tahitians  without  some  tearing.  In  almost  every  in- 
stance of  the  overthrow  of  idolatry  in  the  Pacific  the 


THE   SOCIETY   ISLANDS.  93 

overthrow  has  been  opposed  by  war.  In  this  case  the 
heathen  soon  began  to  persecute  the  Christians.  ' '  It 
had  been  customary  for  the  priests  to  name  certain 
families  from  whom  to  select  victims  for  sacrifice. 
These  selections  were  now  made  from  the  number  of  the 
Christians.  Many  of  the  Christians  fled  to  other  islands, 
and  many  who  did  not  flee  were  sacrificed.  At  length 
a  midnight  attack  was  planned  for  surprising  and  massa- 
cring all  the  Christians.  But  a  few  hours  before  the 
time  appointed  for  the  attack  a  secret  hint  was  given  to 
the  Christians,  and  they  launched  their  canoes  and  fled 
to  Moorea." 

Soon  afterwards,  by  invitation  of  the  idolaters,  the 
Christians,  eight  hundred  in  number,  returned  to  Tahiti. 
On  the  following  Sabbath,  November  12,  1815,  as  they 
were  engaged  together  in  prayer  at  Narri  near  Bunauia, 
the  idolaters  attacked  them  in  great  force.  The  Chris- 
tians had  barely  time  to  seize  their  arms  and  form  three 
columns,  two  near  the  beach  and  one  in  the  rear  to- 
wards the  mountains.  In  the  latter  column  Mahine,  the 
king  of  Huahine,  assisted,  wearing  a  helmet  covered 
with  plates  of  spotted  cowrie,  and  ornamented  with 
plumes  of  tropic  birds.  His  sister  fought  beside  him, 
clothed  in  strongly  twisted  native  flax.  The  idolaters 
drove  in  the  first  ranks,  and  pressed  on  towards  Mahine 
and  his  sister,  when  one  of  Mahine's  men,  Raveae,  with 
a  spear  killed  Upufara,  the  leader  of  the  heathen.  On 
learning  of  the  death  of  their  leader  the  pagan  army  fled. 
Pomare  now  forbade  pursuit  and  murder,  and  sent  a 
select  band  to  Tautina  to  destroy  the  temple,  altars, 


94  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

idols,  and  every  appendage  of  idolatry  they  could  find. 
The  idol,  Oro,  was  now  made  a  post  for  the  king's  kitch- 
en, and  finally  cut  up  for  fire-wood.  Nearly  all  the 
other  idols  on  the  island  and  also  the  temples  and  altars 
were  destroyed.  Pomare  sent  twelve  of  the  idols  to  the 
missionaries  in  Moorea,  with  the  request  that  they  should 
be  sent  to  the  Missionary  Society  in  London. 

The  clemency  Pomare  now  displayed,  in  pardoning 
his  defeated  enemies,  who  according  to  ancient  customs 
would  have  been  put  to  death,  greatly  affected  the  hea- 
then ;  and  they  almost  universally  abandoned  idolatry 
and  united  with  the  Christians  in  worshipping  the  true 
God. 

The  missionaries  at  Moorea  were  overjoyed  at  hear- 
ing of  these  events,  and  sent  one  of  their  number  to  Ta- 
hiti ;  and  he  was  occupied  for  many  days  from  morning 
till  night  in  religious  conversation  with  the  people. 
Schools  were  now  established  everywhere,  the  worship  of 
idols  renounced,  infanticide  and  other  abominations 
of  idolatry  discontinued,  and  peace  and  prosperity 
reigned. 

While  these  encouraging  events  were  occurring,  the 
directors  of  the  London  Missionary  Society  were  discuss- 
ing whether  they  should  not  recall  these  missionaries  and 
give  up  their  mission  in  Tahiti,  because  of  its  apparent 
failure.  But  Rev.  Thomas  Haweis,  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  society,  earnestly  protested  against  this  proposi- 
tion, and  made  a  new  donation  of  $1,000  for  this  mis- 
sion. Rev.  Matthew  Wilkes  remarked  that  he  would 
sell  the  clothes  from  his  back  rather  than  abandon  the 


THE   SOCIETY   ISLANDS.  95 

mission,  and  proposed  that  a  special  season  of  prayer 
should  be  observed  in  behalf  of  the  Society-Islanders. 
While  these  discussions  were  going  on  a  vessel  was  on 
her  way  from  Tahiti  bearing  the  news  of  the  complete 
downfall  of  idolatry  in  Tahiti  and  Moorea,  and  convey- 
ing the  rejected  idols  of  the  people. 

The  missionaries  were  unable  to  fully  meet  the  de- 
mand that  now  arose  for  books  and  translations  of  the 
Bible.  Especially  was  this  the  case  when,  in  1817,  Rev. 
William  Ellis  arrived  with  a  printing-press.  The  wonder 
and  delight  of  the  natives  at  the  marvellous  machine 
knew  no  bounds.  They  gathered  from  the  surrounding 
districts  and  from  the  other  islands  ;  they  filled  the 
houses  of  the  district  to  overflowing,  and  temporary 
sheds  were  erected  for  their  accommodation ;  and  they 
crowded  together  around  the  building  in  which  the  press 
was  operated,  climbing  on  each  others'  shoulders  and 
darkening  the  windows,  so  eager  was  their  curiosity  to 
see  the  wonderful  machine  and  so  desirous  were  they  to 
procure  books.  Some  of  them  waited  five  or  six  weeks 
before  returning  home  rather  than  return  without 
books. 

The  natives  now  also  aided  the  missionaries  with 
great  enthusiasm  in  building  school-houses  and -churches. 
King  Pomare  provided  the  materials,  and  erected  a  house 
of  worship  at  Papaoa,  on  Tahiti,  which  measured  712 
feet  in  length  by  54  in  breadth.  This  building  contained 
three  pulpits,  260  feet  apart.  A  watercourse  five  or  six 
feet  wide  crossed  it  in  an  oblique  direction.  It  was  a 
natural  stream  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea,  and 


96  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

could  not  be  diverted.  For  a  church  bell  a  thick 
iron  hoop  was  used,  which  was  struck  by  an  iron  bolt. 
In  the  same  year,  on  the  6th  of  June,  the  first  bap- 
tism at  the  Society  Islands  was  performed,  when  in  the 
presence  of  4,000  people  the  king,  the  first  subject  of 
this  sacrament,  was  baptized,  and  after  him  many  other 
natives. 

With  new  views  of  duty,  derived  from  Christian  expe- 
rience, Pomare  now  began  to  feel  the  need  of  a  better 
system  of  governing  his  islands,  and  sought  the  aid  of 
the  missionaries  in  making  a  written  code  of  laws. 
When  this  cc-de  was  prepared  he  called  a  great  assembly 
of  7,000  of  the  natives  and  read  it  to  them  ;  and  they 
unanimously  voted  to  accept  it.  Copies  of  it  were  sent 
to  all  the  chiefs  and  it  was  afterwards  rigorously  enforced  ; 
so  rigorously  that  the  Queen-Dowager  was  afterwards 
arrested  for  cutting  down  a  tree  of  a  poor  man,  and 
made  to  pay  restitution,  which,  however,  the  man 
gallantly  refused  to  receive.  The  result  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  code  was  a  greater  peace  and  order  and 
prosperity  of  the  islands. 

In  the  year  1821  King  Pomare  died  in  joyful  Chris- 
tian hope.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  who  was  only 
four  years  old ;  but  the  boy  lived  only  a  little  over  a 
year,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  sister,  who  reigned  with 
the  title,  "Queen  Pomare." 

The  good  work  that  had  been  accomplished  in 
Tahiti  soon  extended  to  the  Leeward  Islands  ;  for  mis- 
sionaries had  occasionally  labored  in  these  islands  from 
the  beginning  of  their  work  in  Tahiti.  Those  of  them 


A  TAHITIAN. 


OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY 


THE   SOCIETY   ISLANDS.  99 

who  fled  from  Tahiti  in  1808  spent  several  months  on 
Huahine  preaching  the  gospel.  In  1814  Mr.  Nott  and 
Mr.  Hayward  visited  Huahine  and  Raiatea,  and  made 
the  circuit  of  these  islands  preaching  to  the  people. 
The  news  of  the  downfall  of  the  great  national  idol, 
Oro,  was  carried  to  these  islands,  and  shook  the  faith 
of  the  natives  in  their  idols.  After  the  victory  over  the 
heathen  in  Tahiti  King  Mahine  sent  Vahaivi,  one  of 
his  chiefs,  to  destroy  the  idols  on  his  island  of  Huahine. 
The  other  chiefs  on  that  island  at  first  opposed  this,  but 
finally  submitted.  King  Tapoa  of  Raiatea  also,  and 
some  of  his  chiefs,  visited  Tahiti,  and  listened  to  the 
instructions  of  the  missionaries,  and  on  returning  to  their 
islands  publicly  renounced  idolatry,  and  persuaded  many 
of  their  people  to  follow  their  example.  In  the  year 
1818  four  missionaries  removed  from  Moorea  to  Raiatea 
and  Borabora,  and  there  found  that  many  of  the  in- 
habitants had  renounced  idolatry.  But  the  idolatrous 
chiefs  in  Raiatea,  like  those  of  Tahiti,  resorted  to  arms 
to  maintain  their  paganism,  and  vowing  vengeance  on 
the  Christians  for  the  destruction  of  the  national  idol, 
Oro,  erected  a  house  of  cocoanut  and  breadfruit  trunks 
in  which  to  burn  the  Christians  alive,  and  attacked  the 
Christians  while  they  were  engaged  in  prayer.  A  des- 
perate conflict  followed,  in  which  the  heathen  were  de- 
feated. 

The  Christians  followed  up  their  victory  with  kind- 
ness,   instead   of    the   customary  barbarities,    and   pro- 
claiming forgiveness  for  their  prisoners  conducted  them 
to  a  sumptuous  feast.      The  heathen  were  so   amazed 
5 


100  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

at  this  clemency  that  they  at  once  destroyed  their  idols 
and  temples. 

In  1820  a  house  of  worship  was  erected,  on  Hua- 
hine,  which  was  one  hundred  feet  long  and  sixty  wide, 
and  was  plastered  within  and  without  with  lime  made 
of  coral  from  the  reefs.  Rustic  chandeliers  were  made 
for  it  of  light  wood  and  cocoanut  shells,  and  sliding 
shutters  for  its  windows. 

From  this  time  for  many  years  the  Mission  greatly 
prospered.  In  the  year  1836  there  were  in  Tahiti  2,000 
natives  in  church  fellowship,  and  in  the  other  islands 
969.  To  voyagers  who  had  witnessed  the  former  de- 
graded condition  of  the  natives  the  transformation  they 
had  undergone  was  very  surprising.  Capt.  Harvey,  of 
a  whale-ship,  made  the  following  statement  in  1839  re- 
specting Tahiti  :  "This  is  the  most  civilized  place  I 
have  been  at  in  the  South  Seas.  It  is  governed  by  a 
dignified  young  lady  twenty-five  years  of  age.  They  have 
a  good  code  of  laws,  and  no  liquors  are  allowed  to  be 
landed  on  the  island.  It  is  one  of  the  most  gratifying 
sights  the  eye  can  witness,  to  see  on  Sunday  in  their 
church,  which  holds  about  five  thousand,  the  Queen 
near  the  pulpit,  with  all  her  subjects  around  her,  decently 
apparelled  and  seemingly  in  pure  devotion. " 

In  all  these  islands  idolatry  was  soon  entirely  abol- 
ished, codes  of  law  were  established,  and  the  natives 
adopted  the  outward  forms  of  Christian  civilization. 

And  now  to  these  islands,  just  rising  out  of  the 
night  of  heathenism  and  receiving  a  little  of  the  light  of 
heaven,  came  in  1836  two  cowled  emissaries  of  the  Ro- 


THE   SOCIETY  ISLANDS.  IOI 

man-catholic  church.  These  priests  soon  contrived,  as 
has  been  described,  to  embroil  the  Windward  Islands 
with  France,  and  to  bring  them  under  usurpation  by 
that  country.  The  result  was,  that  here  one  of  the 
most  promising  missions  in  the  world  was  wrecked,  and 
in  its  place  a  sad  reign  of  violence,  intemperance  and 
lust  was  instituted.  The  French  abolished  the  laws 
against  the  importation  and  sale  of  ardent  spirits  to  the 
natives,  placed  the  mission  schools  under  the  supervision 
of  their  own  officials,  required  that  no  language  but 
French  should  be  used  in  the  schools,  and  forbade  con- 
tributions to  any  foreign  missionary  society. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  London  Missionary 
Society  could  only  withdraw  from  its  enterprise  in 
these  islands.  As  the  best  alternative,  it  transferred  its 
missions  in  these  islands  to  the  Evangelical  Society  of 
France.  French  priests  have  made  great  efforts  to  win 
over  the  natives  to  the  Roman-catholic  religion  ;  but  the 
natives  have  been  so  well  instructed  by  the  English  mis- 
sionaries, and  are  so  fortified  by  the  translations  of  the 
Bible  they  possess  and  use,  that  they  have  continued 
firmly  Protestant. 

There  are  now  in  Tahiti  sixteen  churches  with  1,663 
members,  in  Moorea  four  churches  with  360  members, 
and  in  the  Leeward  Islands  about  1,500  church-members. 
But  in  all  the  Society  Islands  there  has  been  a  sad  phys- 
ical deterioration  and  mortality  of  the  natives  through 
the  intemperance  and  vice  forced  upon  them  by  the 
French.  It  is  one  of  the  miracles  of  missions  that 
there  are  still  any  churches  at  all  in  these  islands,  and 


102  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

one  of  the  saddest  facts  of  history  that  the  rapacity  of 
an  enlightened  country  has  forced  back  into  darkness 
this  poor  people  who  were  just  groping  their  way  out 
of  pagan  night.  The  spirit  of  remorseless  greed,  thus 
shown,  differs  from  the  self-sacrificing  benevolence  that 
animated  the  missionaries,  as  darkness  from  light. 


TAHITIAN  BELLES. 


R  A  R^^ 

OFTHK       ' 

UNIVERSITY 

2^0^.,^^^ 


THE  AUSTRAL   ISLANDS.  105 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    AUSTRAL    ISLANDS. 

WHERE  the  first  missionaries  landed  in  Tahiti  great 
cocoanut-trees  bent  over  the  bay  and  often  dropped  into 
the  waves  ripened  nuts,  which,  borne  by  ocean  currents 
to  distant  reefs,  sometimes  germinated  and  grew,  and 
aided  in  forming  little  Edens  where  previously  had  been 
only  the  dreary  expanse  of  ocean  and  shifting  coral 
sands.  Thus  from  the  same  place  the  truths  proclaimed 
by  the  missionaries  were  conveyed  by  various  agencies  to 
distant  islands,  and  caused  the  blessings  of  Christianity 
where  had  been  only  the  evil  and  gloom  of  paganism. 
Before  the  missionaries  had  gone  to  labor  beyond  the 
Society  Islands  natives  of  the  Austral  group  visited 
them  and  listened  with  intense  curiosity  to  their  in- 
struction, and  on  returning  home  persuaded  their  coun- 
trymen to  renounce  idolatry  and  begin  Christian  wor- 
ship. 

The  Austral  Islands  are  situated  350  miles  south  of 
Tahiti,  between  21°  and  22°  south  latitude  and  145° 
and  150°  west  longitude.  They  are  of  volcanic  forma- 
tion, and  covered,  like  Tahiti,  with  a  luxuriant  tropical 
vegetation.  The  island  Rurutu,  the  most  interesting  of 
this  group,  is  five  miles  long  and  two  wide,  and  rises  to 
1,200  feet  elevation  above  the  ocean. 

In   the  year   1820   a  fearful   epidemic  prevailed  on 


OF 

UNIVERSITY 


106  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

Rurutu,  and  two  chiefs,  believing  that  it  was  caused  by 
the  anger  of  their  gods,  fled  to  the  adjacent  island,  Tu- 
buai,  and  there  remained  several  months.  In  returning 
home  they  were  driven  by  a  storm  more  than  300  miles  ; 
one  of  their  canoes  was  lost,  and  the  other,  with  a  chief 
by  the  name  of  Auura,  safely  reached  Maurau,  the  most 
westerly  of  the  Society  Islands.  This  chief  and  his  com- 
panions were  surprised  to  find  that  here  the  pagan  tem- 
ples had  been  thrown  down  and  the  idols  destroyed,  and 
that  the  natives  were  engaged  in  a  new  form  of  worship. 
Learning  that  white  men,  who  had  come  in  ships,  had 
introduced  the  new  religion  and  were  residing  on  the 
other  Society  Islands,  they  embarked  in  their  canoe,  and 
on  March  5,  1821,  arrived  at  Borabora,  where  they  found 
the  missionaries,  and  continued  four  months  under  their 
instruction.  Auura  was  exceedingly  diligent  in  the 
mission-school,  and  soon  was  able  to  read  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew  and  to  repeat  the  greater  part  of  the  catechism. 
He  now  publicly  renounced  idolatry  and  accepted  the 
true  religion,  and  as  he  began  to  think  of  returning  to 
his  islands  entreated  that  teachers  should  be  sent- with 
him  for  his  countrymen.  Two  native  deacons,  Maha- 
mene  and  Puna,  at  once  volunteered  to  go  with  him. 
The  Boraborans  enthusiastically  supplied  them  with  the 
necessary  outfit  and  school-books  and  copies  of  the  gos- 
pel in  Tahitian.  They  took  passage  for  the  Austral 
Islands  on  July  5,  1821,  taking  with  them  a  boat  by 
which  to  send  back  a  report  of  their  work.  On  the  pth 
of  the  ensuing  August,  after  a  little  more  than  a  month, 
the  boat  returned,  bringing  fourteen  of  the  idols  of  Ru- 


THE   AUSTRAL   ISLANDS.  107 

rutu,  to  indicate  that  idolatry  had  been  overthrown  in 
that  island. 

A  meeting  of  the  Borabora  Church  was  at  once 
called  by  the  missionaries,  and  a  great  multitude  of  the 
people  came  together  to  hear  the  reports  from  Rurutu 
and  to  see  the  idols.  The  boatmen  related  that  as  soon 
as  the  chief,  Auura,  reached  Rurutu,  the  people  gathered 
in  great  numbers  to  welcome  him,  and  that  he  immedi- 
ately informed  them  of  the  abolition  of  idolatry  in  the 
Society  Islands  and  of  his  conversion  to  Christianity, 
and  urged  them  to  destroy  their  idols.  At  the  same 
time  one  of  the  teachers,  Puna,  proposed  that,  for  a  test 
of  the  power  of  their  idols,  they  should  prepare  a  feast 
in  a  place  considered  sacred,  and  of  articles  of  food  which 
their  religion  forbade  to  women.  They  agreed,  and  pre- 
pared the  feast,  and  Auura,  with  the  Tahitian  teachers 
and  their  wives,  partook  of  it,  while  the  natives  looked 
on  expecting  to  see  them  fall  in  the  agonies  of  death. 
When  on  the  next  day  they  perceived  that  they  contin- 
ued unharmed  they  exclaimed  that  their  priests  had 
deceived  them,  and  hastened  to  destroy  their  temples. 
The  teachers  from  Borabora  were  now  welcomed  to  give 
instruction,  and  a  chapel  was  built  which  measured  80 
feet  long  and  36  wide.  In  this  chapel  "the  railing 
around  the  table  in  front  of  the  pulpit  and  by  the  sides 
of  the  stairs  was  composed  of  the  handles  of  spears ;  for 
they  had  resolved  to  learn  war  no  more,  but  to  submit 
to  the  Prince  of  Peace." 

Among  the  idols  exhibited  in  the  meeting  was  one 
called  "Taaroa"  (Kaneloa  of  Hawaii),  the  ancestral 


IO8  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

god  of  Rurutu.  It  was  a  rude  figure  made  of  sennit  in 
the  shape  of  a  man,  with  an  opening  down  the  front, 
through  which  it  was  filled  with  twenty-four  small  idols, 
the  family  gods  of  the  chiefs. 

In  the  meeting  in  which  this  report  was  given  the 
Borabora  people  were  roused  to  great  enthusiasm  to  send 
the  gospel  to  other  islands,  and  the  missionaries  re- 
marked that  they  ' '  felt  some  foretaste  of  the  joy  the 
angels  will  feel  when  it  is  announced  that  the  kingdoms 
of  our  world  are  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and 
his  Christ. " 

As  soon  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  neighboring  island, 
Tubuai,  heard  that  idolatry  had  been  abolished  on  Ru- 
rutu they  sent  a  deputation  to  Tahiti  to  obtain  teachers 
for  themselves  also.  This  deputation  arrived  at  Tahiti 
at  a  time  when  all  that  island  was  preparing  for  war. 
They  now  requested  the  contending  parties  to  postpone 
hostilities  till  their  application  for  teachers  could  be  con- 
sidered. The  hostile  chiefs  assented  and  came  together, 
and  in  conferring  about  this  mission  enterprise  became 
reconciled  to  each  other ;  the  war  was  terminated  and 
messengers  of  the  religion  of  peace  sent  to  Tubuai. 

From  other  islands  of  this  group  natives  now  went  in 
canoes,  some  of  them  a  distance  of  300  miles,  to  Tahiti, 
to  obtain  books  and  teachers.  Thus  mission  work  was 
commenced  on  Rimatara,  Rapa,  and  Raivavai.  The 
English  missionaries  afterwards  often  visited  these  islands 
to  direct  the  work,  which  was  wholly  carried  on  by  na- 
tive teachers,  and  in  a  few  years  the  entire  population 
renounced  heathenism  and  embraced  Christianity. 


THE   AUSTRAL   ISLANDS.  109 

In  1822  the  missionary  inspectors,  Rev.  Daniel  Tyer- 
man  and  Mr.  George  Bennet,  visited  these  islands.  They 
reported  of  Rurutu  as  follows  :  "At  daybreak,  Septem- 
ter  30,  1822,  we  distinguished  an  island  seven  miles 
long  which  reminded  us  of  the  lovely  scenery  of  Tahiti. 
As  we  drew  near  we  saw  a  high  central  peak  with  lower 
eminences  sloping  towards  the  shore,  and  intervening 
valleys  through  which  ran  fertilizing  streams  and  luxuri- 
ous tropical  foliage,  and  at  the  head  of  a  bay  several 
neat  white  houses  built  in  English  style.  A  pier  one- 
fourth  of  a  mile  long  had  recently  been  made  of  huge 
coral  blocks  for  a  landing-place.  Nearly  the  whole  pop- 
ulation were  standing  on  the  beach  to  receive  us,  and 
they  welcomed  us  with  great  joy  and  affection,  the  king 
among  them,  Teuruarii,  a  young  man  sixteen  years  old, 
of  light  complexion,  and  the  two  teachers  from  Borabora. 
Mr.  Ellis  preached  to  two  hundred  people  and  baptized 
thirty-one.  The  chief,  Auura,  now  guardian  of  the  young 
king,  said,  ' '  We  have  given  up  our  island  to  Jesus  Christ, 
to  be  governed  by  him  as  our  King.  We  have  given  our- 
selves to  him  that  we  may  serve  him.  We  have  given  our 
property  to  him  for  the  advancement  of  his  glory ;  we 
have  given  him  our  all,  and  desire  to  be  entirely  his." 

At  Raivavai  (High  Islands)  they  found  a  chapel  of 
plastered  wicker-work  180  by  40  feet,  with  forty-three 
windows,  eight  doors,  and  with  fifteen  pillars — three 
of  which  were  ornamented  with  wreaths  of  human  beings 
carved  out  of  solid  wood.  Here  Mr.  Henry  preached 
to  2,000  people  and  baptized  fifty-two  adults,  among 
whom  were  the  king  and  queen. 


IIO  THE    ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

At  Tubuai,  where  eighteen  months  previous  there  had 
been  war,  they  found  peace,  and  were  welcomed  by  the 
king.  Here  they  held  a  meeting  with  a  congregation  of 
270  persons. 

On  September24,  1832,  Messrs.  Whitney,  Tinker  and 
Alexander,  a  deputation  from  Hawaii,  visited  Rurutu 
on  their  way  to  the  Marquesas  Islands. 

An  account  of  their  visit  was  published  by  Mr.  Alex- 
ander, from  which  the  following  quotations  are  made  : 

"When  about  six  miles  from  Rurutu  we  were  boarded 
by  six  natives  who  came  to  us  in  a  double  canoe,  the 
whole  exterior  of  which  exhibited  very  nea"t  carved  work. 
The  sides  and  stern  were  tastefully  ornamented  with 
feathers,  and  the  whole  was  calculated  to  give  a  favor- 
able impression  of  the  ingenuity  and  enterprise  of  the 
natives  of  Rurutu.  They  informed  us  that  they  were 
in  the  enjoyment  of  peace  and  plenty,  and  that  they 
would  be  glad  to  receive  a  visit  from  us.  We  accord- 
ingly lowered  our  boat  and  followed  the  canoe,  which 
led  the  way  through  the  entrance  between  the  reefs. 
This  entrance  is  quite  intricate  and  dangerous,  being 
not  more  than  ten  feet  wide.  As  the  swell  was  heavy 
the  surf  broke  entirely  across  it ;  we  however  reached 
the  shore  in  safety.  Just  at  the  landing  a  large  flag  of 
white  tapa  was  streaming  in  the  wind,  indicative  of 
peace.  About  thirty  natives  had  assembled  on  the  beach, 
decked  in  the  best  their  wardrobes  could  supply ;  and 
they  welcomed  us  to  their  shores  with  many  an  '/ 
orana,'  'Happiness  attend  you.'  We  were  conducted 
to  a  large  framed  house,  neatly  plastered,  in  which  we 


THE   AUSTRAL   ISLANDS.  Ill 

found  two  large  comfortable  settees,  a  dining-table,  and 
several  well-made  boxes.  Having  seated  ourselves  till 
some  cocoanuts  should  be  brought,  almost  the  whole 
population  of  the  village  came  to  say  1 1  or  ana.'  All 
the  woman  that  I  saw  were  wearing  bonnets,  which  the 
wives  of  the  Tahitian  teachers  had  taught  them  to  make. 

"After  being  refreshed  with  the  milk  of  the  cocoa- 
nut  I  took  a  stroll  through  the  village,  and  was  as 
much  surprised  as  delighted  to  find  most  of  the  houses 
neat,  substantial,  framed  buildings,  well  plastered,  fur- 
nished with  settees,  tables,  bedsteads  and  boxes — all  of 
which,  as  well  as  their  houses,  the  Tahitians  had  taught 
them  to  make.  Most  of  the  people  can  read,  and  having 
several  copies  of  the  Scriptures  they  still  meet  regularly 
for  worship,  and  read  and  pray  together. 

' '  Having  procured  a  guide  we  set  out  to  cross 
over  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  island,  where  was  the 
largest  settlement.  Before  we  reached  the  ascent  we 
passed  through  a  delightful  grove  of  tamanu,  chestnut, 
breadfruit,  ironwood,  hala,  papaya,  cocoanut,  paper-mul- 
berry, sugar-cane,  bananas,  etc.  We  passed  by  a  large 
bed  of  faro,  tracts  of  sweet-potatoes,  and  a  large  orchard 
of  pineapples.  We  found  the  ascent  steep  and  tiresome, 
the  part  over  which  we  passed  being  probably  800  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  ocean,  the  highest  part  of  the 
island  being  1,200  feet  high.  The  thick  brakes  and  tall 
grass  which  overhung  our  path  sometimes  almost  covered 
us.  After  resting  awhile  on  the  summit,  under  the  shade 
of  the  hau,  we  had  just  begun  to  descend  when  we  met 
a  company  from  the  village  to  which  we  were  going, 


112  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

loaded  with  spears  and  paddles,  curiously  wrought 
lapas  of  various  patterns,  and  paroquets,  which  they 
were  bringing  over  to  trade  with  us.  Before  we  reached 
the  foot  of  the  hill  we  met  several  other  parties  who  were 
also  loaded  with  similar  articles  for  barter.  Exchang- 
ing the  salutation,  ' I orana  ,'  we  proceeded,  entering  as 
we  descended  groves  still  more  dense  than  those  through 
which  we  had  first  passed. 

''The  inhabitants  of  the  village  gave  us  a  cordial 
welcome.  The  first  object  that  attracted  our  attention 
was  the  church,  which  is  a  framed  building,  eighty  by 
thirty-six  feet,  the  upright  posts  painted  red,  the  interven- 
ing spaces  lathed  and  plastered.  It  has  two  windows  in 
front,  one  on  each  side  of  the  door,  one  in  each  end, 
and  one  on  each  side  of  the  pulpit — which  is  really  a 
neat  piece  of  workmanship.  The  railing  on  each  side 
of  the  stairs  by  which  you  ascend  it  is  supported  by 
eighteen  spear-handles.  In  front  of  the  pulpit  is  a 
neat  painted  desk  for  the  clerk.  It  has  a  good  floor 
of  the  breadfruit  wood  and  seats  of  the  same  material. 
A  large  number  of  bamboos  of  oil  are  deposited  at  one 
end  of  the  house,  and  a  pile  of  tapa  in  the  pulpit,  which 
the  natives  have  contributed  to  the  London  Missionary 
Society  to  aid  in  sending  the  gospel  to  the  heathen. 
While  we  were  surveying  the  church  a  large  number 
of  the  people  assembled  ;  and  though  they  could  not 
understand  our  language  we  did  not  consider  it  im- 
proper to  pray  with  and  for  them.  Mr.  Tinker  there- 
fore entered  the  clerk's  desk  saying,  (E  pule  tatou, '  '  Let 
us  pray  ;'  and  the  whole  assembly  kneeled  and  behaved 


THE  AUSTRAL   ISLANDS.  113' 

with  much  decorum  while  prayer  was  offered.  The 
church  is  in  the  centre  of  a  yard  enclosed  by  a  neat 
wooden  fence,  through  which  up  to  the  door  is  a  raised 
pavement  eight  feet  wide.  Opposite  the  church  we  en- 
tered a  house  of  similar  construction  in  which  we  were 
pleased  to  find  several  copies  of  the  Tahitian  Bible,  six 
or  eight  well-made  chests,  two  very  comfortable  bed- 
steads, and  two  settees.  After  passing  through  several 
similar  habitations  we  were  led,  by  one  who  seemed  to 
be  the  highest  chief,  to  his  house.  Taking  us  into  a 
back  room  he  presented  each  of  us  with  a  piece  of  tapa. 

' '  There  are  in  this  village  twenty-five  frame  houses 
besides  others,  after  the  original  fashion,  made  of  bam- 
boos. Taking  it  as  a  whole,  I  have  seen  no  village  in  the 
Pacific  where  the  generality  of  the  houses  are  so  good, 
or  where  the  people  appear  more  kindly  disposed  to- 
wards missionaries.  They  were  very  anxious  that  one 
or  both  of  us  should  stop  and  live  among  them.  Bid- 
ding them  an  affectionate  farewell  we  returned  to  the 
other  side  of  the  island,  and  found  the  people  assem- 
bling to  hear  a  sermon  from  Mr.  Whitney. 

When  we  reached  the  house  where  we  first  stopped 
after  landing  we  found  a  good  dinner  awaiting  us,  for 
which  our  walk  had  sharpened  our  appetites.  It  con- 
sisted of  roast  pig,  taro,  yam,  breadfruit,  and  cocoanut- 
milk. 

' '  Just  as  we  were  embarking,  to  return  to  our  vessel, 
we  were  surprised  with  the  salutation,  '  How  do  you 
do,  gentlemen  ?'  from  one  who  looked  like  a  native.  She 
told  us  that  she  was  a  native  of  Pitcairn  Island,  from 


114  THE  ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

which  she  had  been  absent  eight  years.  She  perhaps 
could  have  given  us  more  satisfactory  information  re- 
specting the  islanders  than  any  one  we  had  met ;  but  we 
were  necessarily  in  such  haste  that  we  could  ask  but  few 
questions.  We  therefore  bade  the  people  farewell  and 
pulled  away  to  the  schooner,  passing  through  the  reefs 
much  more  easily  than  we  had  expected. 

"The  number  of  inhabitants  on  the  island  is  some- 
where between  two  and  three  hundred.  The  readiness 
with  which  they  parted  with  their  spears  showed  their 
present  disposition  for  peace  and  good  order.  We  trust 
that  their  desire  for  a  missionary  to  instruct  them  will 
not  long  be  indulged  in  vain,  and  that  some  one  who 
loves  the  Lord  Jesus  in  sincerity  will  be  sent  to  show 
them  the  way  of  life. " 

In  1846  these  islands  were  again  visited  by  Mr.  Barff, 
missionary  of  Huahine,  who  was  greatly  encouraged  by 
what  he  witnessed.  Peace  and  purity  prevailed  among 
the  native  believers ;  the  native  agents  were  faithful  and 
zealous  in  their  work,  and  their  labors  appeared  to  have 
been  crowned  with  the  divine  blessing. 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Richards,  of  the  London  Society's 
mission  at  Raiatea,  gives  an  interesting  account  of  a  visit 
which  he  made  at  Rurutu,  Tupuai  and  Rimatara,  in 
company  with  Rev.  Mr.  Pearce,  of  New  Guinea,  in  the 
John  Williams,  in  1887.  The  object  of  the  tour  was 
not  merely  to  visit  the  native  churches,  but  to  secure 
recruits  for  the  mission  in  New  Guinea.  At  Rurutu  the 
population  is  increasing,  now  amounting  to  seven  hundred 
and  sixty;  and  their  stone  church,  with  walls  two  and  one- 


THE    AUSTRAL   ISLANDS.  115 

half  feet  thick,  will  seat  five  hundred.  The  church  mem- 
bers number  three  hundred  and  eleven,  somewhat  less  than 
one-half  the  population.  Everything  indicates  .thrift  and 
careful  cultivation,  and  the  people  are  honest  and  indus- 
trious. The  chief  trader  said,  "I  could  leave  most  of 
them  alone  in  my  store  without  any  fear  of  being  robbed. " 
When  their  church  was  being  built  the  Rurutans  heard 
that  a  large  log  of  foreign  wood  had  been  washed  ashore 
on  an  island  two  hundred  and  twenty  miles  distant.  They 
at  once  put  to  sea,  found  and  purchased  the  log,  and 
brought  it  to  Rurutu,  to  make  seats  for  their  new  church. 
The  Church  gladly  gave  up  one  of  their  members  and  his 
wife  to  go  as  missionaries  to  New  Guinea. 

The  increase  of  the  population  of  Rurutu,  from  200  or 
300  in  1833  (at  the  time  of  the  visit  of  Mr.  Alexander)  to 
750  (at  the  time  of  the  visit  of  Mr.  Richards),  and  the 
morality  and  religious  prosperity  of  the  natives  illustrate 
the  advantage  of  seclusion  from  the  baneful  influences  of 
unworthy  civilized  people  ;  for  these  islands  lie  away 
from  the  usual  routes  of  ships. 

In  the  year  1890  the  London  Missionary  Society 
gave  this  mission  into  the  care  of  the  Paris  Missionary 
Society ;  for  these  islands  had  passed  under  French  rule. 
French  Protestant  missionaries  are  already  at  work  in 
these  islands  ;  and  there  will  probably  be  a  peaceful 
development  of  the  native  churches  on  Protestant  lines. 


Il6  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE  PACIFIC. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE    PEARL    ISLANDS. 

THE  influence  of  the  Tahitian  Mission  extended,  as 
by  a  sort  of  electric  induction,  to  other  distant  islands 
besides  the  Austral  group.  Natives  from  remote  parts 
of  the  Pacific  either  visited  Tahiti  and  returning  home 
bore  tidings  about  the  true  religion,  or  heard  the  rumor 
of  the  change  of  religion  in  Tahiti,  and  were  thereby  in- 
fluenced to  abandon  idolatry  and  accept  Christianity. 
Thus  in  the  Tuamotu,  or  Pearl,  Archipelago,  of  which 
an  account  will  now  be  given,  also  in  the  splendid 
island  of  Rarotonga,  and  even  in  far-away  Hawaii,  most 
delightful  results  followed  the  ' '  long  night  of  toil "  in 
Tahiti. 

The  Tuamotu  Islands  are  situated  between  14°  and 
24°  south  latitude,  and  134°  and  148°  west  longitude. 
At  the  southeast  extremity  of  this  group  are  the  four 
Gambier  Islands,  and  further  south  Pitcairn  Island, 
famous  for  the  Christian  descendants  of  the  mutineers  of 
the  Bounty. 

The  Tuamotu  Islands  are  of  coral  formation,  and 
have  little  vegetation  but  cocoanut  and  pandanus  trees. 
The  fruits  of  these  trees  are  the  main  reliance  of  the 
inhabitants  for  subsistence. 

"  The  Indian's  nut  alone 

Is  clothing,  meat  and  trencher,  drink  and  can, 
Boat,  cable,  sail  and  needle,  all  in  one." 


THE  BROOM  ROAD,  TAHITI. 


'Aflp 

OF   THR 

UNIVERSITY 


THE  PEARL   ISLANDS.  119 

What  these  islands  lack  in  vegetable  productions 
and  attractions  of  scenery  is  in  a  measure  compensated 
for  by  the  products  and  beauties  of  their  reefs  and  la- 
goons, which  yield  an  almost  inexhaustible  supply  of 
fish,  and  also  pearls  ;  which  latter  have  given  them  the 
name,  "Pearl  Islands."  A't  the  time  of  their  discovery 
bags  of  pearls  were  found  in  the  idol  temples  and  pur- 
chased with  muskets.  The  pearls  of  the  splendid  neck- 
lace of  Empress  Eugenie,  and  Queen  Victoria's  pearl 
which  is  valued  at  $30,000,  were  obtained  from  these 
islands.  The  pearl-shell  itself,  as  well  as  the  pearl,  is 
now  an  article  of  traffic.  The  cost  of  collecting  the 
shells  is  about  $30  per  ton  ;  and  the  amount  realized  for 
them  in  London  is  $500  per  ton.  About  200  tons  of 
these  shells  are  annually  collected  here.  "The  colonies 
of  pearl-shells  are  recruited  every  year  by  infant  pearl- 
shells,  half  an  inch  in  diameter,  like  fairy  coins,  which 
float  in  with  the  tide  from  the  stormy  outer  seas  during 
the  months  from  December  to  March." 

The  phenomena  of  the  lagoons  and  reefs  of  these  isl- 
ands are  a  ceaseless  delight  to  all  who  visit  them.  Poetic 
rhapsodies  have  been  written  about  these  aqueous  gar- 
dens, where  the  weird  and  the  fantastic  mingle  with  the 
beautiful,  where  strange  sea-urchins,  hermit-crabs  and 
sea-centipedes  roam  among  scarlet  corallines,  and  bril- 
liant fish  flit  like  butterflies  among  polyp-anemones  and 
coral  groves. 

In  the  warm  ocean  of  this  latitude  the  coral  polyp 
grows  to  the  highest  perfection  and  with  great  rapidity. 
"The  French  war-vessel,  Dayot,  once  spent  two  months 
6 


120  THE    ISLANDS    OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

in  the  lagoon  of  Manga  Rewa  (of  this  group)  and  then 
sailed  to  Tahiti ;  and  there  specimens  of  living  coral 
were  found  attached  to  its  copper  sheathing,  one  of 
which,  discoidal  in  shape,  with  the  upper  and  lower  sur- 
faces respectively  convex  and  concave,  measured  nine 
inches  in  diameter,  and  weighed  two  pounds  and  four 
ounces. " 

To  view  these  islands  and  reefs,  rising  from  depths  of 
four  or  five  miles  to  the  surface  of  the  ocean  through  an 
extent  of  more  than  1,500  miles  against  the  long  sweep 
of  the  fiercest  billows  of  storms,  is  to  be  profoundly  im- 
pressed with  the  greatness  of  the  work  of  the  inert  and 
apparently  insignificant  polyps  that  have  built  them  up. 
Thus  apparently  unimportant  agencies  sometimes  pro- 
duce the  vastest  results.  Thus  in  the  higher  realm  of 
human  life  forces  despised  as  weak  and  insignificant  have 
prevailed  against  the  greatest  eVils,  and  in  these  islands 
the  gentleness  and  love  of  Christianity  have  overcome 
primeval  heathenism  and  caused  the  blessings  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 

The  first  missionaries  to  these  islands  were  their  own 
inhabitants  returning  from  exile.  In  the  early  part  of 
the  reign  of  Pomare  II.  a  number  of  these  fled  from  their 
homes  because  of  war  and  landed  in  Tahiti,  and  there 
came  under  the  instruction  of  the  London  missionaries. 
When  the  Tahitians  renounced  idolatry  they  too  cast 
away  the  idols  which  they  had  brought  with  them  and 
accepted  the  true  religion.  In  the  year  1827  they  re- 
turned home  ;  and  one  of  them,  Moorea,  undertook  to 
instruct  his  countrymen  respecting  the  true  religion.  At 


THE  PEARL   ISLANDS.  121 

first  his  people  could  hardly  credit  his  account  of  the 
abolition  of  idolatry  in  Tahiti,  and  charged  him  with  de- 
ception ;  and  he  was  obliged  to  flee  for  his  life.  But 
soon  afterwards  others  coming  from  Tahiti  confirmed  his 
statements,  and  then  the  natives  burned  their  idols  and 
destroyed  their  temples. 

The  natives  of  the  neighboring  islands  now  hearing 
of  these  events  went  by  hundreds  a  distance  of  300  miles, 
to  Tahiti,  to  obtain  books  and  to  receive  instruction,  and 
some  of  them  before  leaving  Tahiti  were  received  by  the 
missionaries  into  church  fellowship.  The  missionaries 
remarked  that  they  seemed  to  be  witnessing  a  fulfilment 
of  the  promise,  ''The  isles  shall  wait  for  his  law." 

In  the  year  1832  Moorea  and  another  native,  Teraa, 
were  ordained  as  evangelists  and  sent  to  Anaa,  or  Chain 
Island,  of  this  group.  Not  long  afterwards  a  canoe  from 
this  island  brought  to  Tahiti  the  tidings  that  war,  canni- 
balism and  idolatry  had  ceased,  and  that  a  house  of  wor- 
ship had  been  erected  in  every  district. 

In  1839  Mr.  Ormond,  of  the  Society  Islands  Mission, 
visited  these  islands,  and  addressed  congregations  of  300 
or  400  persons  and  organized  churches. 

During  the  same  year  Commodore  Charles  Wilkes, 
commander  of  the  United  States  Exploring  Expedition, 
visited  several  of  these  islands,  and  was  much  impressed 
with  the  good  work  that  had  been  accomplished  by  the 
native  teachers.  He  said:  " Nothing  could  be  more 
striking  than  the  difference  that  prevailed  between  these 
natives  (those  of  Raraka,  15°  42'  south,  and  144°  west) 
and  those  of  the  Disappointment  Islands  (of  the  same 


122  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC 

archipelago).  The  half  civilization  of  the  natives  of 
Raraka  was  very  marked,  and  it  appeared  as  though  we 
had  just  issued  out  of  darkness  into  light.  They  showed 
a  modest  disposition  to  give  us  a  hearty  welcome.  We 
were  not  long  at  a  loss  what  to  ascribe  it  to :  the 
missionary  had  been  at  work  here  and  his  exertions  had 
been  based  on  a  firm  foundation ;  the  savage  had  been 
changed  to  a  reasonable  creature.  Among  the  inhabi- 
tants was  a  native  missionary  who  had  been  instrumental 
in  this  work.  If  the  missionaries  had  effected  nothing  else 
they  would  deserve  the  thanks  of  all  those  who  roam  over 
this  wide  expanse  of  ocean  and  incur  its  many  unknown 
and  hidden  dangers.  Here  all  shipwrecked  mariners 
would  be  sure  of  kind  treatment  and  a  share  of  the  few 
comforts  the  people  possess." 

In  the  year  1880  France  took  possession  of  this 
Tuamotu  Archipelago,  and  shortly  afterwards  the  mis- 
sion of  this  group  was  transferred  by  the  London  Soci- 
ety to  the  Paris  Missionary  Society.  The  change  of  gov- 
ernment was  not  as  disastrous  to  the  Pearl  Islanders  as 
it  was  to  the  Tahitians.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that,  in  the 
greater  seclusion  of  these  islands  from  the  demoralizing 
influences  of  enlightened  races,  the  natives  will  continue 
to  grow  in  Christian  civilization,  and  that,  infinitely 
more  precious  than  the  pearls  for  which  traders  visit  their 
lagoons,  many  of  these  dark-hearted  natives  will  be  up- 
lifted to  adorn  the  mission  enterprise,  and  to  shine  at  last 
as  jewels  in  the  Redeemer's  crown. 


MADAM  PELE,  AND  VEGETATION  ON  A  LAVA  FLOW. 


OF   THK 

UNIVERSITY 
PA 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  12$ 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    HAWAIIAN    ISLANDS. 

THE  Pilgrim  Fathers,  who  left  their  native  land  and 
crossed  the  ocean  and  braved  the  horrors  of  the  Ameri- 
can wilderness  to  obtain  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
founded  the  most  prosperous  and  progressive  nation  of 
human  history  and  created  a  new  era  in  the  world. 
But  a  higher  movement  began  when  there  went  out 
from  the  United  States  and  other  enlightened  countries 
pilgrims  seeking  not  so  much  to  establish  their  own 
rights  as  to  promote  the  welfare  of  others,  and  even  to 
lift  up  and  save  the  most  unworthy  and  degraded  of 
mankind — a  movement  which  promises  to  transform  the 
whole  human  race  and  bring  in  the  latter-day  glory  of 
the  world. 

In  America  this  movement  began  by  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  For- 
eign Missions,  which  was  formed  on  September  5,  1810, 
at  Farmington,  Conn.  This  Society,  like  the  Lon- 
don Missionary  Society,  was  at  first  undenominational. 
For  many  years  after  its  organization  it  was  connected 
with  the  Congregational,  Presbyterian,  Dutch  Reformed 
and  Reformed  German  Churches.  Its  first  mission  enter- 
prise was  to  India  in  1813  ;  its  next  was  to  Palestine  in 
1819  ;  and  almost  simultaneous  with  the  latter  began  its 
mission  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  As  the  British  socie- 


126  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

ties  had  undertaken  the  evangelization  of  the  islands  of 
the  South  Pacific  this  American  Association  directed  its 
attention  to  those  of  the  North  Pacific ;  and  in  process 
of  time  there  was  an  agreement  that  the  Equator  should 
be  the  boundary  between  their  respective  missions. 

So  many  descriptions  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  have 
been  published  in  the  United  States  that  to  describe 
them  to  Americans  is  like  describing  parts  of  their  own 
country.  But  a  brief  description  seems  necessary  for  a 
clear  understanding  of  their  history. 

The  name,  Hawaiian  Islands,  has  recently  taken  the 
place  of  that  of  Sandwich  Islands,  which  was  given  by 
Capt.  Cook  in  honor  of  his  patron,  Lord  Sandwich ; 
and  sometimes  this  group  is  called  simply  Hawaii,  a 
name  derived  from  its  principal  island. 

The  Hawaiian  Islands  are  the  only  important  islands 
in  the  North  Pacific  east  of  Micronesia.  The  cosmic 
forces  that  upheaved  the  lands  from  the  ocean  seem  to 
have  been  exerted  in  the  North  Pacific  in  forming  this 
one  principal  group,  which,  perhaps  for  that  reason,  is 
the  larger,  loftier,  and  better  adapted  for  a  great  popula- 
tion. But  in  the  North  Pacific  there  is  a  system  of  nu- 
merous islands  like  that  of  the  South  Pacific,  only  in  the 
North  Pacific  the  islands  have  not  been  fully  developed, 
or  many  of  them  have  been  lost  by  subsidence.  Chains 
of  embryo  or  rudimentary  islands  are  found  extending 
from  southeast  to  northwest  throughout  the  North. 
Thus  near  the  Equator  are  the  coral  islands,  Christmas, 
Fanning,  Washington  and  Palmyra ;  and  the  Hawaiian 
group  extends  on  northwest  about  twenty  degrees  be- 


THE    HAWAIIAN    ISLANDS.  I2/ 

yond  Kauai  in  several  rocks  or  coral  islets,  and  in  the 
other  direction  from  the  other  extremity,  from  Hawaii, 
in  submarine  islands,  one  of  which,  discovered  by  deep- 
sea  soundings,  is  200  miles  from  Hawaii,  and  two  miles 
high  where  the  ocean  above  it  is  a  mile  and  a  half  deep. 

The  Hawaiian  Islands  are  therefore  "the  summits 
of  a  gigantic  submarine  mountain  range,  their  highest 
mountains  rising  to  nearly  14,000  feet  above  the  ocean, 
and  their  bases  extending  downwards  to  from  15,000 
to  18,000  feet  below  it.  Referred  to  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean  these  islands  are  higher  than  the  Himalayas." 
(Capt.  C.  E.  Button.) 

"  The  Hawaiian  Islands  are  situated  between  the  par- 
allels 1 8°  50'  and  23°  5'  north  latitude,  and  between  the 
meridians  154°  40'  and  160°  50'  west  longitude.  They 
extend  380  miles  from  southeast  to  northwest.  The  dis- 
tance of  their  chief  seaport,  Honolulu,  from  San  Fran- 
cisco is  2,080  miles;  from  Auckland,  3.800  miles  ;  from 
Sydney,  4, 500  miles  ;  and  from  Hongkong,  4, 800  miles. 

The  importance  of  this  group  arises  quite  as  much 
from  this  advantageous  location  as  from  its  resources. 
Lying  at  the  "cross-roads  of  the  North  Pacific,"  at 
about  the  centre  of  the  great  lines  of  commerce  from 
British  Columbia,  San  Francisco,  Nicaragua  and  Pana- 
ma on  the  east,  to  Japan,  China,  New  Zealand  and  Aus- 
tralia on  the  west  and  south,  it  will  largely  conduce  to 
the  naval  and  commercial  supremacy  of  whatever  coun- 
try gains  possession  of  it. 

The  Hawaiian  group  originally  consisted  of  ten 
islands,  but  in  1894  the  Hawaiian  government  annexed 


128  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

several  rocky  islets  far  to  the  northwest  of  Kauai.  Only 
five  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  are  of  much  importance. 
Their  aggregate  area  is  6, 200  square  miles — a  little  less 
than  that  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

Much  of  this  area  is  unfit  for  agriculture.  Only  nar- 
row strips  of  land  near  the  shores  and  portions  of  the 
valleys  are  cultivated  ;  but  the  interior  is  occupied  by 
rugged  mountains  and  profound  gorges  of  the  wildest 
description,  and  is  fit  only  for  pasturage.  Yet  the  arable 
portions  are  very  fertile.  When  their  resources  are  fully 
developed  these  islands  will  be  able  to  support  a  million 
inhabitants  and  maintain  a  commerce  worth  more  than 
forty  million  dollars  per  annum. 

In  the  Hawaiian  Islands  the  climate  is  ten  degrees 
cooler  than  in  the  same  latitude  elsewhere.  The  ocean 
current  from  the  Arctic  moderates  the  heat,  so  that  at 
the  sea-level  it  rarely  rises  to  90°  F. ,  and  rarely  sinks  to 
60°  F.  The  climate  is  therefore  like  a  mild  summer, 
and,  "  relatively  to  human  comfort,  a  perfection  of  cli- 
mate, the  climate  of  Paradise."  During  the  summer 
months  the  trade-winds  blow  from  the  northeast ;  during 
the  winter  months  occasional  storms  with  heavy  rains 
blow  from  the  southwest,  and  these  storms  sweep  on 
with  their  rains  over  the  west  coast  of  North  America, 
and  over  the  Rocky  Mountains,  into  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley. A  remarkable  difference  of  climate  is  noticeable  in 
passing  from  the  northeast  side  of  the  islands,  that  are 
exposed  to  the  trade-winds  and  are  cool  and  rainy,  to  the 
southwest  portions,  that  are  sheltered  by  high  mountains 
and  are  warm  and  arid.  Thus  in  Honolulu,  on  the 


HAWAIIAN  HEATHEN  TEMPLE. 


KAWAIAHAO  CHI 


OF  THT? 

UNIVERSITY 


UJN.J  I  Y 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  131 

south  side  of  Oahu,  the  average  rainfall  is  thirty-eight 
inches,  while  in  Hilo,  on  the  north  side  of  Hawaii,  it  is 
nearly  twelve  feet.  At  higher  elevations  on  the  moun- 
tains cooler  climates  are  found,  and  at  the  highest  sum- 
mits snow  falls  in  winter. 

The  Hawaiian  Islands  are  less  verdant  than  the  isl- 
ands of  the  South  Pacific,  but  grander,  with  loftier  moun- 
tains. To  one  voyaging  thither  expecting  to  see  islands 
of  tropical  beauty,  with  orange-trees  growing  at  the  very 
beach  and  birds  of  paradise  flitting  through  the  forest, 
the  first  view  is  rather  disappointing.  In  some  parts  are 
rather  to  be  seen  extensive  plains  with  little  verdure, 
high  rugged  ridges,  and  vast  tracts  of  lava  rock  ;  but 
on  the  windward  sides  of  these  islands  there  is  as  won- 
derful a  beauty  of  verdure  as  in  the  islands  of  the  South 
Pacific.  The  glories  of  this  vegetation  are  indescribable. 
Its  most  striking  features  are  its  vines,  especially  the 
palm-like  leie  (freycinetia  scandens)  that  festoons  the  for- 
ests, its  parasites  that  make  strange  hanging  gardens 
high  on  the  trees,  and  its  ferns,  of  which  there  are  300 
species,  varying  from  gem-like  forms,  exquisite  as  butter- 
fly wings,  to  trees  thirty  feet  high,  as  graceful  in  figure 
and  delicate  in  pattern  as  the  finest  palms.  The  sides  of 
the  ravines  that  are  covered  with  these  ferns  have  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  clothed  with  a  gigantic  plumage,  in 
comparison  with  which  the  most  gorgeous  feather-man- 
tles of  the  Hawaiian  kings  were  like  beggars'  garments. 

The  process  of  upheaval  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  it 
is  conjectured,  proceeded  from  northwest  to  southeast, 
for  Kauai,  at  the  northwest  extremity,  seems  to  be  the 


132  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

oldest  island  of  the  group.  It  has  the  greatest  amount 
of  fertile  soil,  the  largest  streams  of  running  water,  and 
the  most  verdure,  and  on  this  account  is  called  ' '  The 
Garden  Island."  It  is  twenty-five  miles  long  by  twenty- 
two  wide,  has  an  area  of  500  square  miles,  and  rises  in 
the  centre  5,000  feet  high.  Its  northwest  coast,  Na 
Pali  (the  precipices),  juts  out  in  rocky  cliffs  that  are 
destitute  of  both  soil  and  verdure  ;  but  the  opposite  side 
consists  of  sloping  well-watered  plains  of  great  fertility, 
on  which  are  very  productive  plantations  of  sugar.  On 
the  north  side  is  the  romantic  valley,  Waioli  (singing- 
water),  called  also  Hanalei  (wreath-making),  of  which 
Mrs.  Isabella  Bird  Bishop  has  written,  "It  has  every 
element  of  beauty,  and  for  mere  loveliness  exceeds  any- 
thing I  have  ever  seen. " 

Sixty-four  miles  southeast  from  this  island  is  Oahu, 
which  measures  forty-six  by  twenty-five  miles,  has  an 
area  of  530  square  miles,  and  two  mountain  ranges,  one 
on  the  west  4,030  feet  high,  and  another  at  the  eastern 
extremity  3, 106  feet  high.  On  this  island  is  Honolulu, 
the  capital  of  the  group,  a  city  of  25,000  inhabitants. 
It  is  situated  on  a  sloping  plain  that  is  formed  of  the 
partially  decomposed  lava  cinders,  about  fourteen  feet 
deep,  of  the  extinct  volcano,  Punchbowl,  in  the  rear. 
Near  by  is  the  magnificent  inlet,  Pearl  Harbor,  which 
the  United  States  has  sought  for  a  naval  station.  This 
harbor  will  admit  of  twenty  miles  of  wharves,  and  is 
large  enough  to  accommodate  at  once  all  the  navies  of 
the  world.  Here  and  at  Honololu  artesian  water  has 
been  obtained  by  a  hundred  wells.  On  the  other  islands 


SCENE  IN  IAO  VALLEY,  MAUI,  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  135 

artesian  borings  seem  more  likely  to  bring  up  molten 
lava  than  water ;  but  here  in  former  ages  there  have  been 
successive  elevations  and  depressions  of  the  land,  as  is 
shown  by  fragments  of  wood  that  have  been  brought  up 
by  well-borers  from  great  depths,  and  in  these  geological 
changes  a  hard  stratum  has  been  deposited  at  great 
depth  which  retains  the  water  that  percolates  from  rain- 
falls. Water  has  also  been  piped  from  splendid  valleys 
in  the  rear  of  Honolulu,  and  thereby  this  city  has  been 
made  as  beautiful  with  the  choicest  ornamental  vegeta- 
tion of  the  Tropics  as  any  city  in  the  world. 

Southeast  from  Oahu,  twenty-three  miles  distant,  is 
Molokai,  which  is  forty  miles  long  and  seven  wide,  has 
an  area  of  190  square  miles,  and  rises  to  the  height 
of  2, 500  feet.  This  island  seems  to  have  had  its  eastern 
side  rent  away  by  some  violent  convulsion  of  nature  ;  so 
that  its  mountain  on  this  side  rises  sheer  in  awful  preci- 
pices from  the  ocean,  while  on  the  other  side  it  slopes 
gradually  to  the  shore.  From  the  precipitous  side  of  this 
island  juts  out  the  peninsula  Kalauwao,  where  lepers, 
1,000  in  number,  have  been  segregated.  So  fertile  is 
this  tract  of  land,  and  so  well  are  these  wretched  crea- 
tures provided  for  by  the  Hawaiian  government  and  by 
religious  associations,  that  natives  in  good  health  have 
been  known  to  endeavor  to  pass  themselves  off  as  lepers 
in  order  to  gain  admission  to  the  privileges  of  this 
asylum. 

About  eight  miles  southeast  from  Molokai  is  Maui, 
which  measures  forty-eight  miles  long  and  from  eight  to 
twenty-five  wide  and  has  an  area  of  620  square  miles.  This 


I36  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

island  resembles  Tahiti  in  being  of  two  parts  that  are 
connected  by  a  low  sandy  isthmus.  A  captain  of  a  ship 
once,  when  approaching  this  island  in  the  night,  mistook 
this  isthmus  for  a  channel  of  water  and  undertook  to 
pass  through  it,  and  left  the  bones  of  his  ship  on  the 
beach.  The  western  portion  of  this  island,  5,820  feet 
high,  is  deeply  cleft  into  ridges  and  valleys,  among  which 
is  the  valley  lao,  which  is  well  compared  for  its  grandeur 
to  Yosemite.  This  valley  expands  in  the  heart  of  the 
mountain  to  a  breadth  of  two  miles,  and  is  surrounded 
with  precipices  4,000  feet  in  height,  which  are  covered, 
even  over  their  most  rocky  walls,  with  an  enchanting  robe 
of  vegetation. 

The  eastern  portion  of  this  island  is  occupied  by  one 
great  dome-like  mountain,  Haleakala  (house  of  the  sun, 
or,  the  ensnaring  of  the  sun).  The  latter  name  is  de- 
rived from  the  tradition  of  a  hero  who  is  said  to  have 
caught  the  sun,  while  it  was  making  its  daily  circuits  in 
only  two  or  three  hours,  and  compelled  it  to  go  slower,  a 
tradition  found  also  in  New  Zealand. 

The  northern  portion  of  this  mountain  has  been 
deeply  grooved  by  the  action  of  water;  for  this  side 
of  the  island  has  received  the  full  dash  of  the  trade-wind 
rains,  and  the  mighty  torrents  thereby  caused  have  torn 
out  the  deep  volcanic  throats  of  the  old  crater  hills  and 
the  long  empty  caverns  through  which  the  lava  once 
flowed,  and  thus  eroded  grand  valleys  that  are  now 
clothed  with  unbroken  vegetation. 

The  wonder  of  this  mountain  is  the  crater  at  its  sum- 
mit— at  an  elevation  of  10,000  feet  above  the  ocean ;  a 


ANCIENT  HAWAIIAN  HUT. 


im  X?  '9 

iff 


RESIDENCE  OF  KEELIKOLANI. 


OF   TTIV. 

{  UNIVERSITY  } 


THE   HAWAIIAN    ISLANDS.  139 

vast  cavern  seven  miles  long,  three  miles  broad  and  two 
thousand  feet  deep.  This  crater  has  evidently  grown 
out  of  a  congeries  of  craters  that  have  broken  into  each 
other,  as  has  been  the  case  with  Mokuaweoweo  on 
Mauna  Loa.  Its  floor  consists  of  the  congealed  lava 
streams  of  ancient  eruptions,  which  appear  almost  as 
fresh  and  lustrous  as  though  they  had  flowed  but  yester- 
day. Within  it  there  are  sixteen  cones,  ranging  one 
after  the  other  from  southeast  to  northwest,  some  of 
them  900  feet  in  height,  covered  with  cinders  and  vol- 
canic gravel.  Of  the  appearance  of  this  crater  Capt.  C. 
E.  Dutton  has  written,  * '  Of  all  the  scenes  presented  in 
the  Hawaiian  Islands  this  is  by  far  the  most  sublime  and 
impressive.  Its  grandeur  and  solemnity  have  often  been 
described,  but  the  descriptions  have  not  been  over- 
wrought. " 

The  largest  island  of  the  group  is  Hawaii,  which  is 
situated  southeast  of  Maui,  and  is  ninety  miles  in  length, 
seventy  in  breath  and  3, 950  square  miles  in  area.  It  has 
the  highest  mountains  in  the  Pacific,  Loa  and  Kea,  each 
14,000  feet  in  height ;  besides  which  it  has  Mt.  Hualalai, 
8, 275  feet  high,  and  the  Kohala  mountain,  5, 505  feet  high. 
On  this  island  there  are  three  volcanoes ;  and  for  this 
reason  much  of  its  surface  is  unattractive,  with  the  black 
desolation  of  lava  flows,  which  nature  has  yet  done  little 
to  cloth  with  vegetation. 

These  flows  are  of  two  kinds:  the  Pahoehoe,  consisting 
of  lava  which  has  flowed  smoothly  and  cooled  in  forms  of 
billows,  coils  and  hummocks,  and  Aa,  sometimes  called 
clinkers,  consisting  of  lava  which  has  broken  up  while 


140  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

flowing  and  been  piled  in  a  horror  of  ruggedness  like  ice- 
packs in  rivers. 

In  these  flows  there  are  long  caverns — the  conduits 
through  which  the  lava  once  flowed  from  the  mountains 
to  the  ocean.  In  many  places  these  caverns  have  been  bro- 
ken in  from  above,  forming  pitfalls  dangerous  to  unwary 
travellers  and  to  ranging  animals.  In  one  of  these  caverns 
at  an  elevation  of  6,000  feet  (on  Mauna  Loa)  the  writer 
once  found  eighty  carcases  of  goats  that  had  leaped  in 
for  shelter  from  storms,  or  for  refuge  from  dogs,  and  had 
been  unable  to  leap  out.  A  vaquero  once,  while  chas- 
ing cattle,  came  suddenly  with  his  horses  at  full  gallop 
on  one  of  these  caverns  that  was  hidden  by  tall  ferns,  and 
spurred  his  horse  to  leap  over  it,  but  fell  short  of  the 
opposite  brink.  His  horse  was  killed  by  the  fall  of 
thirty  feet  on  sharp  rocks  ;  and  he  had  one  arm  broken 
and  was  unable  to  climb  out.  His  companions  twenty- 
four  hours  afterwards  found  him  and  rescued  him.  Pit- 
falls of  another  kind,  equally  dangerous,  are  found  where 
the  lava  has  flowed  through  forests  and  has  been  mould- 
ed by  the  trunks  of  trees  into  pits  of  their  own  shape  and 
size.  The  early  missionaries  used  the  name  of  these  pits, 
meke,  in  rendering  the  word  hell  ;  and  this  name,  with  its 
suggestion  of  volcanic  fire,  proved  quite  expressive. 

In  some  parts  of  this  island  these  lava-flows  have  de- 
composed into  very  fertile  soil  and  formed,  in  place  of 
their  former  desolation,  most  attractive  tropical  forests. 
Such  a  region  is  Hilo,  than  which  hardly  a  more  inviting 
place  can  be  found,  with  its  beautiful  bay,  its  cascades 
pouring  into  the  ocean,  its  island  of  cocoanut,  its  town 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  141 

embowered  in  tropical  foliage,  and  its  mountains  crowned 
with  shining  snows. 

On  the  islands  that  have  been  particularly  mentioned 
sugar  plantations  and  extensive  live-stock  ranches  have 
been  established  ;  a  good  beginning  also  has  been  made 
in  the  culture  of  coffee,  rice,  fibre-bearing  plants,  ba- 
nanas, pineapples,  and  other  tropical  fruits,  and  immense 
tracts  are  still  uncultivated.  On  Hawaii  alone  seventy- 
thousand  acres  of  land,  untouched  as  yet  by  the  planter, 
are  finely  adapted  to  the  culture  of  coffee  and  almost  all 
tropical  fruits.  The  soil  is  excellent,  except  on  the- 
steep  declivities,  where  the  rains  have  leached  out  its 
best  ingredients  and  left  a  stiff  clay  heavily  impregnated 
with  iron.  Such  lava  rocks  as  in  Europe  are  ground  up 
and  used  as  ferilizers  have  here  almost  wholly  formed  the 
soil,  and  on  the  low  lands,  where  they  are  mingled  with 
decayed  vegetable  matter  or  ocean  sand,  constitute  a  soil 
of  extraordinary  fertility.  On  such  land  at  Makaweli, 
Kauai,  and  Ewa,  Oahu,  sugar-cane  has  yielded  from  five 
to  nine  tons  of  sugar  per  acre. 

The  volcanoes  of  Hawaii  are  Kilauea,  Mauna  Loa, 
and  Hualalai,  and  are  of  surpassing  interest  to  tourists 
and  scientists.  Here  is  an  opportunity  to  behold  the 
operations  of  that  power  which  under  cosmic  influences, 
it  is  supposed,  reared  the  islands,  the  continents,  and 
the  mountain  ranges  of  our  world,  having  raged  with 
devouring  fire  over  all  the  face  of  nature.  Here  at  al- 
most all  times  one  may  look  into  nature's  crucible  and 
imagine  the  formation  of  the  crude  fabric  from  which 
by  flood  and  fire  and  glacial  action  have  been  developed 


142  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

all  the  minerals  and  metals  of  earth,  and  by  forces  of 
life  the  varied  and  beautiful  forms  of  the  vegetable  and 
animal  kingdoms. 

Kilauea  is  situated  at  an  elevation  of  4,000  feet, 
on  the  slopes  of  Mauna  Loa,  about  10,000  feet  below 
its  summit.  It  is  a  vast  pit  sunk  into  the  plain,  and 
measures  seven  and  a  half  miles  in  circumference.  The 
centre  of  its  activity  is  at  its  southeastern  extremity, 
where  there  has  long  been  a  lake  of  fire  varying  from 
a  thousand  feet  to  half  a  mile  in  diameter.  Frequent- 
ly this  lake  has  overflowed  the  white  floor  of  the  crater, 
and  sometimes  its  fiery  torrents  have  burst  through  the 
surrounding  walls  and  poured  down  from  the  slope  of 
the  mountain  to  the  ocean.  Twice  within  recent  years 
its  fires  have  subsided  and  its  lava  sunk  away,  leaving  a 
pit  five  hundred  feet  deep.  It  is  supposed  that  at  these 
times  the  down-plunge  has  been  caused  by  outbreaks  and 
outflows  below  the  level  of  the  ocean.  After  a  few  weeks 
or  months  the  fires  have  always  returned,  beginning  at 
first  feebly,  and  waxing  more  and  more  violent. 

This  volcano  has  had  successive  cycles  of  activity. 
The  process  has  been,  first,  a  rising  of  the  lake  with  the 
formation  of  a  congealed  crust  over  its  surface  swelling 
upward  in  the  form  of  a  mound ;  then  an  eruption, 
through  this  mound,  of  fountains  of  fire  playing  to  the 
height  of  from  fifteen  to  one  hundred  feet ;  then  a  sub- 
sidence, and  sometimes  at  last  an  extinction  of  the 
fires.  Then  the  same  process  has  been  repeated,  and 
thus  continually.  With  each  cycle  the  floor  of  the 
crater  has  risen  higher.  In  1830  it  was  1,500  feet  be- 


LAVA  FLOW  OVER  WATERFALL. 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  145 

low  the  rim  of  the  crater ;  now  it  is  only  350  feet  below 
the  rim. 

A  hotel  has  been  built  near  this  crater  where  tour- 
ists are  very  comfortably  accommodated,  and  guides 
are  furnished  who  lead  to  the  very  brink  of  the  fiery 
lake.  It  is  generally  safe  to  approach  near  enough  to 
dip  up  the  molten  lava ;  but  extreme  caution  is  neces- 
sary, as  sometimes  the  banks  give  way  or  sudden  out- 
bursts of  fire  occur.  The  missionary  Dr.  G.  P.  Judd 
once  descended  into  a  pit  of  this  crater  and  was  en- 
gaged in  dipping  up  the  lava  when  the  fiery  flood  sud- 
denly rose  and  cut  off  his  retreat.  A  native  hurried  at 
his  call  and  drew  him  out,  and  immediately  the  pit 
was  filled  with  molten  lava  and  began  to  throw  up  foun- 
tains of  fire. 

The  volcano  of  Mauna  Loa  is  at  the  summit  of  the 
mountain  of  that  name,  at  an  elevation  of  14,000  feet 
above  the  ocean,  in  the  crater  Mokuaweoweo,  a  crater 
which  measures  19,000  by  9,000  feet  and  about  800  feet 
in  depth.  This  mountain,  though  about  a  hundred  feet 
lower  than  Kea,  is  the  grander  mountain,  being  vastly 
broader.  As  referred  to  its  base  at  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean  it  is  19,000  feet  in  height.  The  upper  portion,  from 
the  summit  to  four  miles  down  its  sides,  is  a  region  of 
utter  desolation,  without  a  vestige  of  vegetation  even  of, 
moss  or  lichen  ;  a  frightful  waste  of  congealed  streams, 
cataracts,  and  tufa  cones  of  lava.  But  during  the  winter 
season  its  black  horrors  are  covered  with  a  beautiful 
mantle  of  snow. 

The  eruptions  of  this  volcano  generally  begin  without 
7 


146  THE   ISLANDS  OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

any  premonition  of  earthquakes  or  subterranean  noises, 
' '  as  quietly  as  the  moon  rises. "  A  light  is  first  seen  on 
the  summit  of  the  mountain,  and  this  increases  till  it 
turns  night  to  day  to  a  distance  of  forty  miles.  Then 
fires  burst  forth  lower  down  from  the  side  of  the  moun- 
tain, and  play  like  a  fountain  to  a  height  of  from  500  to 
1,000  feet ;  and  a  river  of  lava  pours  down  the  moun- 
tain side,  spreading  from  half  a  mile  to  two  miles  in 
breadth  and  twenty  or  thirty  miles  in  length,  overwhelm- 
ing forests  and  villages,  and  sometimes  reaching  the 
ocean.  Such  a  stream  in  1855  broke  out  on  this  moun- 
tain at  an  elevation  of  12,000  feet  and  flowed  for  fifteen 
months,  reaching  within  eight  miles  of  the  beautiful  town 
of  Hilo,  when  the  eruption  ceased  and  the  town  escaped. 
Again,  in  1880,  a  fiery  stream  from  a  point  on  this  moun- 
tain n,  100  feet  above  the  ocean  flowed  nine  months,  and 
reached  within  three  quarters  of  a  mile  of  Hilo.  Real 
estate  in  Hilo  for  the  time  being  fell  in  value,  and  the 
inhabitants  prepared  to  flee  with  their  movable  property, 
when  the  flowing  of  the  lava  ceased. 

The  magnificence  of  these  volcanic  displays  is  inde- 
scribable. Rev.  T.  Coan  visited  an  eruption  on  this 
mountain  in  1852  and  spent  a  night  beside  it,  and  wrote 
that  no  tongue,  no  pen,  no  pencil  could  portray  the  beau- 
ty, the  grandeur,  the  terrible  sublimity  of  the  scenes  he 
witnessed  on  that  memorable  night.  Mrs.  Isabella  Bird 
Bishop  thus  described  an  eruption  she  saw  at  the  sum- 
mit :  ' '  A  perfect  fountain  of  pure  yellow  fire  was  regu- 
larly playing  in  several  united  jets,  throwing  up  its  glori- 
ous incandescence  to  a  height  of  from  150  to  300  feet. 


CRATER  OF  KILAUEA  IN  1840. 


LAKE  OF  KILAUEA  IN  1894. 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  149 

You  cannot  imagine  such  a  beautiful  sight.  The  sunset 
gold  was  not  purer  than  the  living  fire.  Suddenly  a 
change  occurred.  The  jets,  which  for  long  had  been 
playing  at  a  height  of  300  feet,  became  quite  low,  and 
for  a  few  seconds  appeared  as  cones  of  fire  wallowing  in 
a  sea  of  light ;  then  with  a  roar,  like  the  sound  of  gath- 
ering waters,  nearly  the  whole  surface  of  the  lake  rose 
three  times,  with  its  whole  radiant  mass  in  one  glorious 
upward  burst,  to  a  height  of  600  feet,  while  the  earth 
trembled  and  the  moon  and  stars  withdrew  abashed  into 
far-off  space. " 

This  volcano,  considered  as  to  the  size  of  its  moun- 
tain, the  noblest  of  the  Pacific,  as  to  the  height  of  the 
columns  of  fire  it  lifts  upward,  14,000  feet,  as  to  the 
power  of  its  eruptions,  throwing  fountains  from  100  to 
1,000  feet  in  height,  and  as  to  the  amount  of  lava  poured 
forth,  ejecting  at  one  eruption  as  much  as  Vesuvius  has 
thrown  forth  in  2,000  years,  is  the  grandest  volcano  in 
the  world. 

The  volcano  of  Hualalai  has  had  only  one  eruption 
in  historical  time,  which  occurred  in  1801,  and  over- 
whelmed an  extensive  plain  and  fish-pond  and  poured 
into  the  ocean. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  consider  the  current  theo- 
ries respecting  the  causes  of  these  volcanic  phenomena 
and  the  laws  of  their  action,  if  it  were  compatible  with 
the  plan  of  this  sketch.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  pre- 
vailing opinions,  as  set  forth  by  geologists,  are  that  the 
internal  heat  of  the  earth  may  be  ascribed  to  the  crush- 
ing of  rocks  in  the  contraction  of  the  earth  and  in  its 


150  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

changes,  like  those  of  ocean  tides  under  lunar  and  solar 
influences ;  and  that  the  eruptions  of  lava  may  be  as- 
cribed to  the  force  of  vapors  formed  by  the  percolation 
of  water  from  rain  or  from  the  ocean,  a  percolation  that 
is  sometimes  very  local  and  causes  very  local  eruptions, 
as  those  of  Mauna  Loa  while  Kilauea  is  quiet,  and  those 
through  the  mountain  rim  of  Mokuaweoweo  while  the 
crater  eight  hundred  feet  below  does  not  fill  up.  It  is 
profoundly  interesting  to  observe  that  the  lines  of  direc- 
tion of  this  volcanic  action,  like  those  of  mountain  chains 
and  ocean  coasts  throughout  the  world,  have  been  from 
northwest  to  southeast,  or  at  right  angles  to  this  line — 
the  former  line  tangential  to  the  Polar  Circle  and  having 
the  same  angle  to  the  Equator  as  the  Ecliptic — suggest- 
ing that  cosmic  forces  have  directed  the  cleavage  through 
which  volcanic  discharges  have  burst  forth ;  also  to  note 
that  the  distances  apart  of  centres  of  volcanic  action,  as 
of  islands  and  mountains  elsewhere  in  the  world,  have 
generally  been  twenty  miles  or  multiples  of  twenty,  sug- 
gesting that  the  crust  of  the  earth  above  volcanic  fires  is 
twenty  miles  in  thickness  ;  also  to  note  the  correspond- 
ence in  time  of  volcanic  action  here  with  similar  action 
in  other  parts  of  the  world. 

Looking  at  these  volcanic  phenomena  and  also  at  the 
marvellous  struggle  life  is  everywhere  making  to  gain  a 
foothold  in  its  rocky  desolation  and  to  overcome  it, 
sometimes  sending  forward  its  heralds  in  the  form  of 
hardy  plants  into  lava  streams  only  a  few  weeks  after 
they  have  cooled,  we  are  prepared  to  consider  the  higher 
phenomena  of  the  condition  of  the  people  of  the  Ha- 


"  ' l  ^  ft  LT 
OF   THB 

UNIVERSITY 
.PA 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  153 

waiian  Islands,  their  primitive  paganism,  and  the  strug- 
gle that  has  been  made  to  introduce  Christianity  among 
them,  and  thereby  to  overcome  their  barbarism  and 
transform  them  into  a  civilized  people. 

The  ancient  condition  of  these  islanders  was  like  that 
of  the  natives  of  the  South  Pacific,  to  whose  race  they 
belonged.  Many  ages  ago  a  company  of  Polynesians, 
driven  by  storms,  drew  near  in  canoes  to  these  islands, 
and  joyfully  beheld  their  beautiful  mountains,  and  finally 
landed,  and  gained  a  livelihood  from  the  spontaneous 
productions  of  their  forests  and  the  fish  of  their  seas.  In 
remembrance  of  their  former  home,  Savaii,  they  named 
the  largest  island  of  this  group  Hawaii.  Through  un- 
counted ages  the  descendants  of  this  company  roamed 
over  this  little  oceanic  world,  knowing  of  no  land  beyond 
the  blue  horizon  of  the  surrounding  waters  but  Tahiti, 
which  their  most  daring  navigators  sometimes  visited. 

The  primitive  condition  of  this  people  has  been  well 
described  by  the  apostle  Paul  in  his  account  of  the  an- 
cient heathen  world,  which,  because  of  its  aversion  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  had  been  given  over  to 
the  most  senseless  idolatry  and  the  most  revolting  im- 
morality. The  Hawaiians  worshipped  three  chief  gods, 
Kaneloa,  Ku  and  Lono,  and  besides  these  a  multitude 
of  lesser  gods  and  demi-gods  and  spirits  of  their  ances- 
tors, with  whom  they  supposed  the  whole  earth,  sky  and 
sea  to  swarm.  These  gods,  they  supposed,  were  induced 
by  human  sacrifices  to  enter  their  idols.  They  also  sup- 
posed that  they  entered  plants  and  animals.  A  native 
who  inadvertently  stepped  on  a  lizard  would  run  scream- 


154  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

ing  with  terror,  not  because  he  was  afraid  of  the  little 
reptile,  but  because  he  was  horrified  at  having  enraged  a 
god  that  he  supposed  had  entered  into  it. 

To  these  gods  they  ascribed  evil  passions  like  their 
own.  Says  Rev.  S.  E.  Bishop  :  ' '  The  Hawaiian  pan- 
theon was  an  embodied  diabolism.  A  loathsome  filthi- 
ness  is  not  mere  incident,  but  forms  the  groundwork  of 
character,  not  merely  of  the  great  hog-god  Kamapuaa. 
but  even  of  the  more  humanlike  Ku  and  Kane  of  the 
chief  trinity. " 

As  might  be  supposed,  the  worship  of  such  gods  was 
most  demoralizing,  oppressive  and  distressing.  Under 
it,  to  be  cruel,  false,  lewd,  licentious,  vile  and  most  des- 
picable was  to  be  godlike ;  and  the  rites  of  worship,  the 
dances,  the  sacrifices,  and  all  the  orgies  were  indescriba- 
ble expressions  of  evil  passions. 

The  priests  (the  kahunas)  brought  all  this  paganism 
with  terrific  power  into  the  every-day  life  of  the  natives. 
They  did  this  first  by  the  tabu  system,  as  they  alleged 
that  the  presence  of  the  gods,  or  the  necessity  of  propi- 
tiating their  favor,  made  certain  articles,  places  and 
times  tabu — that  is,  forbidden  for  secular  use.  This  sys- 
tem rested  with  the  greatest  weight  upon  the  women, 
who  by  it  were  forbidden  to  eat  many  kinds  of  fish  and 
fruit,  or  to  eat  with  the  men,  and  in  many  other  ways 
painfully  restricted — a  cunning  device  whereby  the  "lords 
of  creation  "  monopolized  whatever  was  choicest  in  the 
productions  of  the  islands. 

The  priests  constantly  applied  this  paganism  also  by 
the  practice  of  sorcery.  Whenever  any  one  became  seri- 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  155 

ously  ill  they  extorted  a  large  price  to  exorcise  the  evil 
spirit,  which  they  declared  was  the  sole  cause  of  the  ill- 
ness. Sometimes  they  practiced  sorcery  to  destroy  their 
enemies.  Like  the  natives  of  Southern  Polynesia  and 
Australia,  they  endeavored  to  obtain  something  from  their 
victims — remnants  of  their  food,  portions  of  their  clothing, 
parings  of  their  nails,  or  collections  of  their  saliva — by 
which  to  send  demons  for  their  destruction.  For  this 
reason  the  chiefs  kept  trusty  attendants  with  spit-boxes 
who  should  prevent  any  exuviae  of  their  persons  from 
coming  into  the  possession  of  their  enemies.  The  vic- 
tims of  the  priests  died  either  from  terror,  or  from  poi- 
son, or  from  violence.  And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  by 
threats  of  sorcery  the  priests,  as  instruments  of  the  chiefs, 
ruled  the  people  with  despotic  power  and  kept  them  in 
a  constant  terror.  Sometimes  the  natives  died  from  this 
terror.  This  was  once  shown  in  a  striking  way  when  a 
priest  informed  a  white  man  that  he  was  about  to  pray 
him  to  death,  and  the  white  man  replied  that  he  too 
could  pray.  The  priest,  supposing  that  the  white  man 
was  practising  black  arts  against  him,  sank  into  despond- 
ency and  despair  and  finally  died. 

The  priests  made  their  severest  requisitions  on  great 
public  occasions,  and  then  not  only  imposed  rigorous 
tabus,  but  also  required  human  sacrifices.  When  war 
was  to  be  declared,  a  temple  dedicated,  an  idol  made,  a 
new  house  built  for  a  chief,  a  new  canoe  launched,  or 
when  a  chief  was  seriously  sick  or  died,  human  sacrifices 
were  offered.  Then  for  fear  of  being  sought  by  the 
executioner  the  natives  fled  to  the  mountains  and  lay 


156  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

hid  till  the  danger  had  passed.  The  victims  were  secret- 
ly assassinated  by  a  blow  with  a  club  from  behind,  and 
were  then  laid  before  the  idol  on  the  heiau  to  putrefy  in 
the  sun.  The  heiau  was  an  oblong  platform  of  stones, 
sometimes  over  200  feet  long,  100  feet  wide,  and  from 
eight  to  twenty  feet  high,  on  which  within  a  high  sur- 
rounding wall  was  a  paved  court  for  idol-worship.  (W. 
D.  Alexander's  "  History  of  the  Hawaiian  People.") 

The  paganism  of  the  Hawaiians  took  on  its  worst 
aspects  at  the  funerals  of  their  chiefs.  Then  besides 
making  human  sacrifices  they  utterly  abandoned  them- 
selves to  sensuality  and  violence.  They  ' '  threw  off  their 
clothing  and  the  restraints  of  decency,  filled  the  air  with 
loud  and  long-continued  waitings  and  the  noise  of  shell- 
trumpets,  knocked  out  their  front  teeth,  lacerated  their 
bodies,  set  fire  to  houses,  danced  in  a  state  of  nudity, 
and  appeared  more  like  demons  than  human  beings." 

Although,  as  might  be  supposed,  the  influence  of 
this  paganism  was  utterly  brutalizing,  the  Hawaiians  did 
not  become  as  degraded  and  inhuman  as  many  of  the 
tribes  in  the  South  Pacific  ;  nor  did  they,  like  those 
southern  tribes,  practice  widow-murder,  patricide  and 
cannibalism.  Patricide  is  said  to  have  once  been  com- 
mon in  Hawaii,  but  was  discontinued  in  consequence 
of  a  remark  of  an  old  man  when  his  son  was  about  to 
throw  him  over  a  precipice  to  escape  the  trouble  of 
caring  for  him.  The  old  man  said,  "  If  you  throw  me 
over  this  precipice  your  son  will  throw  you  over  it 
when  you  become  old."  Startled  by  this  warning  the 
son  spared  the  old  man  ;  and  others  hearing  of  the  inci- 


HAWAIIAN  WOMAN,  WITH  HAIR  NECKLACE  AND  WHALE'S  TOOTH. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  159 

dent  desisted  from  patricide.  But  in  Hawaii  immoral- 
ity, war  and  infanticide  were  as  prevalent  as  in  the 
South  Pacific.  Probably  one-third  of  the  children  were 
put  to  death.  One  woman  once  said  to  a  missionary, 
"I  have  had  thirteen  children,  and  I  have  buried  them 
all  alive.  Oh  that  you  had  come  sooner  to  teach  me 
better !"  The  missionaries  once  rescued  a  boy  by  the 
name  of  Kuaea  from  a  grave  in  which  he  had  been 
placed  to  be  buried  alive  ;  and  he  grew  up  in  their  care 
to  become  the  most  popular  preacher  in  Hawaii. 

To  this  people  in  their  primitive  degradation  the  ad- 
vent of  white  men  from  civilized  countries  was  like  the 
coming  of  beings  from  another  planet.  The  first  of 
these  visitors  was  the  Spanish  navigator,  Juan  Gaetano, 
who  discovered  part  of  this  group  in  1555  but  in  jeal- 
ousy of  other  countries  concealed  the  discovery.  His 
ancient  chart,  marking  the  situation  ten  degrees  too  far 
east,  has  been  found  in  the  Spanish  archives.  Little  is 
known  of  his  coming,  so  long  ago,  but  more  is  known 
of  that  of  the  English  navigator,  Capt.  James  Cook,  who 
made  this  group  known  to  the  world.  He  had  been 
sent  to  the  Pacific  to  observe  the  transit  of  Venus  from 
Tahiti,  and  in  a  subsequent  voyage  went  north  to  search 
for  a  passage  from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic,  and  on  the 
1 8th  of  January,  1778,  discovered  the  island  of  Kauai, 
and  afterwards  the  other  Hawaiian  islands. 

When  he  landed  on  Kauai  all  the  multitude  of 
natives  who  had  gathered  to  see  the  strange  phenomena 
of  his  ships  fell  flat  on  the  earth,  and  remained  so  until 
he  made  signs  to  them  to  rise.  They  took  him  for  their 


l6o  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

god  Lono,  who  they  supposed  had  left  the  islands  and 
was  now  returning  ;  and  the  ships  they  took  for  floating 
islands  covered  with  trees.  They  called  him  and  his 
crew  Haolis  (white  hogs)  ;  and  this  was  ever  afterwards 
their  name  for  foreigners.  They  meant  no  disrespect, 
but  gave  this  name  because  the  hog  was  their  largest 
animal,  and  it  was  their  custom  to  give  such  names  to 
each  other ;  as  for  instance  the  common  name  Puaahiva 
(beloved  hog).  Cook  and  his  crew  did  not  belie  the 
name  given  them,  but  proved  it  to  be  more  appropriate 
than  that  of  gods. 

Although  at  first  Cook  sought  to  restrain  his  men, 
because  of  the  terrible  effect  of  their  vices  at  Tahiti,  his 
visits  degenerated  into  mere  sensual  carousals,  with  con- 
nivance at  the  heathenism  of  the  natives  and  harsh 
returns  for  their  generous  hospitality.  On  landing  he 
was  induced  to  ascend  a  heiau  and  there  receive  the 
worship  of  the  priests,  who  prostrated  themselves  before 
him  with  long  prayers  and  offerings  of  baked  hogs. 
Taking  advantage  of  this  superstitious  reverence  for 
himself  he  exacted  from  them  immense  supplies  of  food 
and  took  the  sacred  fence  of  their  temple  for  fuel.*  The 
king  gave  him  six  splendid  feather  cloaks,  which  were 
worth  in  the  labor  of  their  construction  over  a  million 
dollars.  They  were  made  of  the  very  beautiful  golden- 
yellow  feathers  of  a  rare  bird,  the  Oo  (Moho  nobilis), 
which  has  under  each  of  its  wings  two  of  these  feath- 
ers. In  return  for  these  gifts  he  gave  the  king  a  linen 
shirt  and  a  cutlass. 

Finally,  presuming  on  the  dread  the  natives  had  of 


THE    HAWAIIAN    ISLANDS.  161 

him  as  a  god,  Cook  endeavored  to  take  their  king  aboard 
his  vessel,  to  compel  him  to  restore  a  boat  that  had  been 
stolen  and  broken  up  for  its  nails.  He  ordered  his  offi- 
cers meanwhile  to  allow  no  canoes  to  enter  the  harbor, 
and  they  fired  on  and  killed  a  chief  who,  in  ignorance  of 
this  order,  was  crossing  the  harbor  in  a  canoe.  When 
the  news  of  this  murder  came  to  the  attendants  of  the 
king  they  began  to  throw  stones  at  Cook,  and  he  fired 
upon  them.  A  chief  then  seized  him  from  behind,  and 
he  called  for  help  ;  whereupon  the  chief  exclaimed,  "  He 
cries  ;  he  is  not  a  god, "  and  killed  him.  The  sailors 
then  fled  to  their  boats  and  pulling  off  a  little  distance 
from  the  shore  fired  volleys  of  musketry  upon  the  na- 
tives, and  the  ships  fired  cannon  shot  upon  them.  The 
natives,  seeing  the  smoke  of  the  firearms,  hung  up  wet 
mats  to  protect  themselves,  till  seventeen  of  their  num- 
ber had  been  shot,  and  then  fled  to  the  mountains. 
Thus  Cook  paid  with  his  life  for  his  complicity  with  the 
idolatry  of  the  natives.  It  was  a  rare  opportunity  he 
had  enjoyed  of  giving  to  the  wondering  natives  their  first 
knowledge  of  civilization  ;  but  his  coming  among  them 
was  rather  like  the  springing  of  a  wolf  into  a  sheep-fold 
to  slay  some  of  the  flock  and  be  slain  himself. 

After  this  disastrous  termination  of  Cook's  visit  no 
ships  went  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands  for  seven  years,  so 
bad  a  reputation  had  their  people  acquired  for  barbarism. 
At  length  the  fur-trade  with  the  northwest  coast  of  Amer- 
ica began,  and  vessels  on  their  way  from  Nootka  Sound 
to  China  put  in  to  the  island  for  supplies.  After  this 
trade  declined  that  in  sandal  wood  commenced,  and 


162  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

continued  till  1826.  This  fragrant  wood  was  taken  to 
China  and  sold  at  ten  dollars  per  picul  of  133^  pounds 
for  incense  in  the  temples.  This  trade  brought  great 
wealth  to  the  Hawaiian  chiefs,  and  enabled  them  to  pur- 
chase vessels,  guns,  liquors,  and  Chinese  goods.  Thus 
Kamehameha  I.  was  able  to  pay  for  one  vessel,  the 
Niu,  $51,750,  and  Liholiho  for  the  yacht  Cleopatra 
$80,000,  also  for  the  brig  Thaddeus  $40,000,  for  a  small 
schooner  $16,000,  and  for  ammunition  $11,000;  and  in 
1826  the  Hawaiian  government  undertook  to  pay  off  its 
debts  of  $500,000  chiefly  with  sandal  wood.  But  the 
work  of  procuring  this  wood  from  the  mountains  was  a 
terrible  drudgery  to  the  common  people,  who  carried  it 
on  their  shoulders  or  dragged  it  on  the  ground.  After 
this  trade  ended  the  whale-oil  business  began ;  and, 
whale-ships  went  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands  for  supplies 
and  to  spend  the  winters.  When  in  later  times,  about 
the  year  1860,  the  whaling  business  declined,  new  agri- 
cultural enterprises  were  started,  and  sugar,  rice  and 
other  tropical  productions  brought  great  wealth  to  the 
islands. 

The  influence  of  the  many  adventurers  who  visited 
the  islands  in  these  various  enterprises  was  most  deplor- 
able. While  some  of  them,  like  the  British  Capt.  Van- 
couver, exhorted  the  natives  to  refrain  from  war,  and 
foretold  the  future  coming  of  missionaries,  others  were 
little  better  than  the  savages  themselves,  and  committed 
most  cruel  outrages.  Such  an  outrage  was  the  massacre 
perpetrated  by  Capt.  Metcalf  because  a  native  of  Mauri 
had  stolen  one  of  his  boats  and  broken  it  up  for  the 


PAPAYA  TREES,  HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  165 

nails.  He  caused  the  natives,  as  they  came  off  in  canoes 
for  trade,  to  gather  near  the  sides  of  his  vessel,  in  the 
range  of  his  guns,  and  then  fired  broadsides  of  cannon 
and  muskets  upon  them,  killing  a  hundred  of  them  and 
wounding  many  more.  About  two  weeks  after  his 
departure  his  son,  a  lad  eighteen  years  old,  arrived  at 
the  same  place  and  was  suddenly  attacked  by  the  na- 
tives, and  with  all  but  two  of  his  men  killed  ;  and  his 
vessel  was  dragged  up  on  the  beach. 

Some  of  these  foreigners  provided  the  natives  with 
firearms,  and  cooperated  with  them  in  the  wars  which 
raged  after  the  death  of  Kalaniopuu,  who  was  the  king 
of  Hawaii  at  the  arrival  of  Capt.  Cook.  A  strife  then 
arose  among  the  chiefs  for  the  rule  of  Hawaii  ;  and  from 
that  time,  in  1792,  like  the  storms  that  in  winter  blow 
over  this  group,  wars  raged  till  1796.  First,  Kamehame- 
ha,  a  chief  of  the  district  of  Kona,  Hawaii,  contended 
against  the  chief  of  the  adjoining  district.  The  elements 
of  nature  seemed  to  come  to  his  aid,  for  a  cloud  of  vol- 
canic cinders  from  Kilauea  destroyed  a  portion  of  the 
army  of  his  enemies  and  the  natives  concluded  that  the 
gods  were  aiding  him.  Then  sixteen  foreigners  joined 
his  army,  and  mingled  the  thunders  of  their  muskets 
and  cannon  with  the  savage  yells  of  his  barbaric  warriors 
and  made  him  master  of  Hawaii.  The  storm  of  war 
then  swept  over  to  Maui  and  like  a  cloud-burst  raged 
awhile  in  the  beautiful  valley  of  lao ;  the  king  of  Maui 
was  defeated  and  the  streams  of  that  valley  choked  with 
the  bodies  of  the  slain.  Not  long  after  this  a  naval  bat- 
tle of  hundreds  of  canoes  and  several  schooners  was 


1 66  THE  ISLANDS   OF    THE   PACIFIC. 

fought  between  Hawaii  and  Maui,  and  again  Kameha- 
meha  was  victorious.  The  war  then  passed  on  to  Oahu, 
and  the  army  of  that  island  was  swept  up  the  valley  of 
Nuuanu  and  over  the  frightful  precipices  of  the  Pali. 
Finally,  in  1810,  the  king  of  Kauai  quietly  submitted, 
and  Kamehameha  became  monarch  of  the  whole  group. 

Sadder  than  the  carnage  that  was  caused  by  these 
wars,  and  the  tragic  deaths  of  Capt.  Cook  and  other  voy- 
agers, was  the  frightfully  immoral  influence  of  these 
sensual  foreigners,  the  distillation  by  them  of  ardent 
spirits,  and  the  introduction  by  them  of  diseases  that 
destroyed  the  natives.  Their  coming  was  like  an  inva- 
sion of  wild  animals  from  the  continents  to  ravage, 
trample  and  devour.  It  has  been  well  remarked  that, 
"while  there  have  been  no  serpents  or  tigers  in  these 
islands,  there  have  been  human  brutes,  worse  than  ser- 
pents and  tigers,  that  have  greatly  destroyed  the  people. " 
Capt.  Cook  estimated  the  population  at  the  time  of  his 
coming  at  400,000;  in  1832  it  was  only  130,000;  and 
now,  in  1895,  the  number  of  native  Hawaiians  is  only 
33,000.  The  dark  side  of  the  history  of  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  is  the  record  of  the  influence  of  these  evil  classes 
of  foreigners,  and  their  opposition  to  Christian  civiliza- 
tion. 

But  the  work  of  foreigners  in  aiding  Kamehameha  to 
conquer  the  islands  unintentionally  on  their  part  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  enterprise  of  Christian  missions. 
The  establishment  of  one  government  over  all  the  group 
and  the  cessation  of  inter-island  warfare  paved  the  way 
for  the  gospel  of  peace. 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  1 67 

The  occasion  of  the  introduction  of  Christianity  into 
the  Hawaiian  Islands  was  the  arrival  in  the  United  States 
of  several  Hawaiian  boys  who  had  been  employed  as 
seamen  on  ships.  One  of  these  boys  was  found  one 
morning  by  Rev.  Edwin  Dwight  weeping  on  the  steps  of 
a  Yale  College  building,  and  by  him  kindly  cared  for, 
and  at  length,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Samuel  Mills,  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  American  Board  of  Missions,  sent 
with  other  Hawaiian  boys  to  a  school  for  foreign  children 
at  Cornwall,  Conn.  In  this  school  most  of  these  boys 
embraced  Christianity;  and  then  they  entreated  that 
Christian  teachers  should  be  sent  to  instruct  their  be- 
nighted countrymen.  Their  request  excited  great  inter- 
est in  the  churches  of  New  England  and  moved  the 
American  Board  of  Missions  to  extend  their  enterprises 
to  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  and  finally,  on  the  23d  of  Octo- 
ber, 1819,  a  little  over  forty  years  after  the  discovery  of 
Hawaii  by  Capt.  Cook  and  twenty-three  years  after  the 
beginning  of  the  London  Mission  to  the  South  Pacific, 
the  first  company  of  missionaries  for  the  Hawaiian  Isl- 
ands embarked  at  Boston  on  the  brig  Thaddeus  with 
Capt.  Blanchard. 

This  company  consisted  of  the  ordained  ministers, 
Hiram  Bingham  and  Asa  Thurston,  Samuel  Whitney — 
who  left  Yale  College  in  his  sophomore  year  to  engage 
in  this  mission  and  was  afterwards  ordained  at  the  Isl- 
ands— Samuel  Ruggles,  a  teacher,  Dr.  Thomas  Holman, 
Elisha  Loomis,  a  printer,  and  Daniel  Chamberlain,  a 
farmer.  All  these  were  married  men  ;  and  the  farmer 
took  with  him  his  five  children. 


168  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

From  a  worldly  point  of  view  the  enterprise  on  which 
these  missionaries  then  entered  was  not  inviting.  To  go 
with  their  tender  wives  and  children  from  the  peace  and 
order  and  sweet  amenities  of  civilization  to  dwell  among 
the  wild,  half-clothed  savages  of  Hawaii  was  almost  like 
going  into  infernal  regions.  But  the  faith  and  Christian 
devotion  with  which  they  went  forth  were  rewarded 
beyond  their  expectations ;  for  unknown  to  them,  before 
their  arrival  at  the  islands,  idolatry  was  voluntarily 
abandoned  by  the  natives. 

And  here  we  have  another  beautiful  illustration  of  the 
far-reaching  influence  of  the  mission  work  at  Tahiti. 
The  explanation  of  this  overthrow  of  idolatry  is  found  in 
the  influence  of  that  mission  work.  Tidings  had  come 
to  Hawaii  of  the  downfall  of  idolatry  in  Tahiti ;  and 
Kamehameha  had  made  inquiries  of  sea-captains  about 
the  astonishing  event  and  about  the  nature  of  Christian- 
ity. The  news  was  very  pleasing  to  the  royal  women  of 
Hawaii,  who  felt  that  the  tabu  system  was  an  intolerable 
burden.  At  the  time  of  the  death  of  Kamehameha  I. 
some  of  these  women  were  liable  to  death,  one  for  having 
eaten  bananas,  and  others  fish,  contrary  to  the  tabu  ; 
and  two  of  them,  Keopuolani  and  Kaahumanu,  wives  of 
Kamehameha,  had  secretly  resolved  to  do  away  with  the 
tabu.  With  this  view,  in  the  pompous  ceremony  of  the 
investiture  of  Liholiho,  Kamehameha  II.,  with  the 
sovereignty,  Kaahumanu,  after  proclaiming  him  king, 
publicly  exhorted  him  to  abandon  the  tabu  system.  On 
the  evening  of  the  same  day  Keopuolani,  the  mother  of 
Liholiho,  broke  over  the  tabu  by  eating  with  Kauikeaouli, 


TRAVELLER'S  PALM. 


OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  IJl 

the  younger  brother ;  and  a  few  weeks  afterwards  Kaahu- 
manu  succeeded  in  persuading  the  young  king  to  disre- 
gard the  tabu  by  publicly  sitting  down  to  eat  at  a  feast 
with  women.  As  he  did  so  the  people  looked  on  in 
consternation,  expecting  to  see  a  manifestation  of  the 
wrath  of  their  gods,  and  when  they  saw  that  he  contin- 
ued unharmed  exclaimed,  ' '  The  tabus  are  abolished  ! 
The  idols  are  a  lie  !"  Strange  to  say,  the  high  priest, 
Hewahewa,  was  the  first  to  apply  a  torch  to  the  temples. 
The  natives  then  with  a  sort  of  frenzy  went  everywhere 
destroying  images  and  sanctuaries  of  their  paganism  even 
to  the  most  distant  islands. 

A  brief  stand  for  idolatry  was  made  by  a  chief  by  the 
name  of  Kekuaokalani  (the  god  of  heaven),  with  a  mul- 
titude of  natives,  and  a  battle  was  fought  at  Kuamoo, 
Ha  waii,  but  this  chief  was  killed  by  a  musket-ball  fired 
from  a  boat,  and  his  fighting  wife  beside  him  fell,  and 
his  army  was  vanquished.  Then  by  royal  proclamation 
idolatry  was  for  ever  forbidden  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 
So  strictly  was  this  law  observed  that  when,  in  1826, 
Roman-catholic  priests  arrived  they  gained  little  influ- 
ence over  the  people,  and  they  were  expelled  in  1831  by 
the  regent  queen,  Kaahumanu,  on  account  of  their  wor- 
ship of  images. 

The  first  news,  therefore,  that  came  to  the  missiona- 
ries on  their  arrival  on  March  30,  1820,  was  that  the 
warrior  king,  Kamehameha,  was  dead,  and  that  the  idols 
had  been  destroyed.  It  had  taken  fifteen  years  of  ardu- 
ous, perilous  work  to  abolish  idolatry  in  the  Society 
Islands,  but  here,  by  the  providence  of  God,  it  was  abol- 
8 


1/2  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

ished  before  the  missionaries  arrived.  They  felt  that 
God  had  gone  before  them  preparing  the  way  for  his 
work. 

But  to  their  great  surprise  they  now  found  difficulty 
in  even  gaining  permission  to  land  and  reside  in  the 
islands.  The  degraded  foreigners  who  were  dwelling  in 
sensuality  among  the  natives  viewed  with  regret  the 
coming  of  teachers  of  a  holy  religion,  and  hastened  to 
warn  the  king  that  the  new-comers  would  forbid  his 
polygamy  and  make  war  upon  him  and  wrest  away  his 
kingdom.  It  was  replied  that  the  missionaries  would 
not  have  brought  their  wives  and  tender  children  if  they 
had  come  for  war  ;  and  in  this  way  the  king  was  barely 
persuaded  to  allow  them  to  land  for  one  year  on  trial. 

It  is  hard  to  realize  now  what  it  was  for  these  mis- 
sionaries to  take  up  their  residence  among  the  natives. 
When  the  ladies  of  their  company  first  saw  the  natives 
they  exclaimed,  "Can  these  be  human  beings?  Are 
they  not  devils  rather  ?"  And  some  of  them  went  below 
into  the  cabin  of  their  vessel  and  wept.  The  owner  of  a 
trading  vessel,  on  seeing  them  land,  exclaimed,  "These 
ladies  cannot  remain  here.  They  will  all  return  to  the 
United  States  in  less  than  a  year. "  And  with  kind  solic- 
itude for  their  welfare  he  gave  orders  that  his  vessels 
should  give  them  free  passage  to  the  United  States  when- 
ever they  should  apply.  The  night  before  they  landed 
there  had  been  a  drunken  carousal  on  shore,  and  the 
next  morning  the  rocks  along  the  beach  were  covered 
with  the  nude  forms  of  intoxicated  natives. 

Sometimes  there  was  something  ludicrous,  as  well  as 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  1/3 

revolting,  in  the  appearance  of  the  natives,  especially 
when  they  endeavored  to  combine  with  their  own  bar- 
baric style  the  fashions  of  civilized  people.  Not  long 
after  the  arrival  of  the  missionaries  there  was  a  celebra- 
tion of  the  accession  of  Liholiho  to  the  sovereignty.  On 
this  occasion  the  wives  of  the  king  were  borne  in  a  pro- 
cession with  great  pomp.  The  head  queen,  Kamamalu, 
was  seated  in  a  whaleboat  fastened  to  a  platform  of  spars 
and  borne  on  the  shoulders  of  seventy  men.  The  boat 
and  platform  were  covered  with  fine  broadcloth,  relieved 
by  richly-colored  native  cloth.  The  bearers  marched  in 
a  solid  phalanx,  the  outer  ranks  of  which  wore  scarlet 
and  yellow  feather  cloaks  and  superb  helmets  of  the  same 
material.  The  queen  wore  a  scarlet  silk  mantle  and  a 
coronet  of  feathers,  and  was  screened  from  the  sun  by  a 
huge  umbrella  of  scarlet  damask,  supported  by  a  chief 
wearing  a  scarlet  malo  and  a  tall  feather  helmet.  On 
one  quarter  of  the  boat  stood  the  chief  Naihe,  and  on 
the  other  the  chief  Kalaimoku,  each  similarly  clad  and 
holding  a  scarlet  kahili,  or  plumed  staff  of  state,  thirty 
feet  in  height.  The  other  wives  of  the  king  appeared  in 
similar  pomp,  and  in  lieu  of  a  boat  were  mounted  upon 
double  canoes.  The  dress  of  the  queen-dowager  was 
seventy-two  yards  of  orange  and  scarlet  kerseymere, 
which  was  wrapped  around  her  waist  until  her  arms  were 
sustained  by  it  in  a  horizontal  position,  and  the  remain- 
der was  formed  into  a  train  supported  by  her  attend- 
ants. Meanwhile  the  king  and  his  suite,  nearly  naked 
and  intoxicated,  rode  from  place  to  place  on  horses 
without  saddles,  followed  on  the  run  by  a  shabby  escort 


1/4  THE   ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

of  fifty  or  sixty  men.  Eighty  dogs  were  cooked  for  the 
feast  of  this  celebration. 

Hardly  had  the  year  in  which  the  missionaries  had 
been  allowed  to  remain  on  probation  expired  when  the 
vile  foreigners  renewed  their  opposition.  They  now 
informed  the  king  that  in  the  Society  Islands  mission- 
aries had  taken  away  the  lands  of  the  natives,  and  that 
these  American  missionaries  were  offensive  to  the  king 
of  Britain,  and  that  if  he  did  not  send  them  away  the 
British  monarch  would  give  him  proof  of  his  anger. 
But  this  opposition  was  overcome  in  a  providential  way. 
Thirty  years  previous  the  British  government  had  prom- 
ised to  give  Kamehameha  a  vessel  on  account  of  his 
services  in  rescuing  vessels  and  seamen  from  the  savages, 
and  now  it  occurred  to  that  government  to  fulfil  this 
promise,  and  for  this  purpose  a  vessel  was  sent  from  New 
South  Wales  to  Hawaii.  This  vessel,  with  another  con- 
voying it,  touched  on  its  way  at  Tahiti,  and  there  took 
on  board  English  missionaries  and  Tahitian  Christians, 
who  engaged  passage  by  the  convoying  vessel  to  the 
Marquesas  Islands.  Just  at  this  time,  when  the  foreign- 
ers were  renewing  their  opposition,  these  vessels  arrived 
at  Honolulu.  The  English  gentlemen  at  once  assured 
the  king  of  the  friendship  of  the  British  monarch,  and 
the  Tahitians  informed  him  of  the  good  work  done  by 
missionaries  in  their  islands,  and  thereby  effectually 
counteracted  the  slanders  of  the  foreigners. 

But  this  opposition  was  often  afterwards  renewed,  as 
in  1825  and  1826,  when  laws  had  been  enacted  against 
intemperance  and  prostitution,  and  seamen  several  times 


., 

THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS. 

assaulted  the  missionaries,  and  once  fired  cannon  on 
one  of  their  houses,  in  order  to  compel  them  to  use 
their  influence  for  the  abrogation  of  these  laws.  Strange 
to  say,  this  opposition  was  led  by  the  British  Consul, 
Richard  Charlton. 

In  1826  Commodore  Thomas  Ap  Jones  arrived, 
and  at  the  request  of  the  missionaries  made  a  public 
examination  of  these  matters.  He  afterwards  wrote  of 
the  meeting  that  was  then  held,  "I  own  I  trembled  for 
the  cause  of  Christianity  and  for  the  poor  benighted 
islanders  when  I  saw  on  one  hand  the  British  consul, 
backed  by  the  most  wealthy  and  hitherto  influential 
foreign  residents  and  shipmasters  in  formidable  array, 
and  prepared,  as  I  supposed,  to  testify  against  some 
half  dozen  meek  and  humble  servants  of  the  Lord,  calmly 
seated  on  the  other,  ready  and  even  anxious  to  be  tried 
by  their  bitterest  enemies.  But  what  was  the  result  of 
this  portentous  meeting  ?  The  most  perfect,  full,  com- 
plete, and  triumphant  victory  for  the  missionaries  that 
could  have  been  asked  by  their  most  devoted  friends." 
The  influence  of  unprincipled  whites  in  the  subsequent 
history  of  the  islands  has  been  the  chief  cause  of  the 
demoralization  of  the  churches,  the  corruption  of  civil 
government,  and  the  recent  fall  of  the  Hawaiian  mon- 
archy. 

From  the  first  inception  of  this  mission  several  cir- 
cumstances contributed  to  its  success.  That  of  the 
voluntary  abolition  of  idolatry  by  the  natives  has  been 
mentioned.  Besides  this  was  the  wonder  with  which 
the  natives  regarded  the  art  of  reading  and  their  conse- 


1 78  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE  PACIFIC. 

quent  zeal  to  read  whatever  was  published  by  the  mis- 
sionaries. With  the  aid  of  the  English  missionary, 
Rev.  William  Ellis,  who  came  from  Tahiti,  the  language 
was  quickly  reduced  to  writing.  Reading  was  easily 
taught,  as  only  thirteen  letters  were  necessary  to  spell 
the  vernacular ;  and  since  each  syllable  ended  with  a 
vowel  the  natives  needed  little  more  than  to  learn  the 
alphabet  to  be  able  to  read.  The  king  insisted  on  being 
the  first  pupil,  and  after  he  had  learned  to  read  gave 
command  that  every  one  in  his  kingdom  should  attend 
the  mission  schools.  Those  who  learned  to  read  now 
became  teachers  to  instruct  others,  and  went  everywhere 
forming  schools.  In  a  few  years  thirty  thousand  of  the 
people  were  able  to  read  and  write.  Savage  sports  were 
then  forgotten  in  the  eagerness  of  the  people  to  read 
whatever  was  published  by  the  missionaries.  With  great 
zeal  the  missionaries  now  hastened  to  prepare  school- 
books,  tracts,  and  translations  of  the  Bible.  In  the  year 
1832  the  translation  of  the  New  Testament  was  com- 
pleted, and  in  1839  tnat  °f  tne  wno^e  Bible.  In  a  few 
years  twenty  thousand  copies  of  the  Bible  and  fifty 
thousand  of  the  New  Testament,  and  also  a  great  quan- 
tity of  tracts  and  school-books,  were  distributed.  Sixty- 
five  million  pages  were  sent  forth,  ' '  which  were  to  the 
natives  like  leaves  from  the  tree  of  life." 

The  missionaries  gained  a  great  advantage  also  by 
the  favor  and  cooperation  of  the  surviving  wives  of  Ka- 
mehameha  I.  and  of  several  high  chiefs  who  were  the 
rulers  of  the  islands.  The  high  rank  of  these  helpers  is 
especially  noticeable.  One  of  them,  Keopuolani  (the 


Kamehameha  IV.  ?  Kamehameha  I 

•  vJts       '  -7jr!0-'/7 


Kamehameha  V. 


Kalakaua. 
HAWAIIAN  MONARCHS. 


Liliuokalani. 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  l8l 

gathering  of  the  clouds  of  heaven),  was  the  grand- 
daughter of  the  king  who  received  Capt.  Cook,  the  chief 
queen  of  Kamehameha  I.,  and  the  mother  of  the  kings 
Kamehameha  II.  and  Kamehameha  III.  So  sacred  was 
her  person  regarded  that  whenever  she  walked  abroad 
all  who  saw  her  prostrated  themselves  to  the  earth. 
After  Kamehameha's  death  she  was  married  to  Hoapili, 
governor  of  Maui.  She  was  one  of  the  first  converts  and 
displayed  excellent  Christian  character,  and  earnestly 
labored  for  the  schools  and  churches  until  her  death  on 
September  16,  1823. 

The  first  convert  on  Oahu  was  the  Regent  Queen 
Kaahumanu  (feather  mantle),  who  had  been  the  favorite 
wife  of  Kamehameha  I.,  and  who  after  his  death  mar- 
ried Kamualii,  the  former  king  of  Kauai  and  afterwards 
governor  of  Oahu.  She  was  so  changed  from  a  haughty, 
cruel  and  besotted  savage  that  the  natives  spoke  of  her 
as  the  "new  Kaahumanu."  During  her  last  illness  a  re- 
inforcement of  nineteen  missionaries  arrived  and  she 
received  them  with  tears  of  joy.  It  was  remarked  at  her 
death,  June  5,  1832,  that  "the  mission  lost  in  her  a 
mother,  a  judicious  counsellor,  and  a  firm  supporter ; 
but  heaven  received  a  soul  cleansed  by  the  blood  of 
Christ  from  the  foulest  stains  of  heathenism,  infanticide, 
and  abominable  pollution." 

Another  distinguished  assistant  of  the  missionaries 
was  Kaakini,  the  brother  of  Kaahumanu.  At  the  com- 
ing of  the  missionaries  he  was  the  governor  of  Hawaii, 
and  afterwards  the  governor  of  Oahu.  This  chief  built 
the  first  church  at  Kailua,  and  in  later  times  vigorously 


1 82  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

defended  the   missionaries   against  the  corrupt  foreign- 
ers. 

Quite  as  notable  was  Kapiolani  (the  captive  of 
heaven),  who  was  descended  from  a  line  of  kings  and  was 
the  wife  of  Naihe,  the  national  orator.  In  December. 
1824,  she  determined  to  break  the  spell  of  the  belief  in 
Pele,  the  dread  goddess  of  the  volcano.  For  this  pur- 
pose she  made  a  long  journey  to  Kilauea.  Her  husband 
and  a  multitude  of  friends  besought  her  not  to  provoke 
the  wrath  of  the  supposed  goddess  ;  and  a  priestess  met 
her  at  the  brink  of  the  crater  and  predicted  her  death  if 
she  persisted  in  her  course.  But  she  boldly  descended 
into  the  volcano  and  walked  to  the  brink  of  the  burning 
lake,  then  half  a  mile  in  breadth,  and  there  defiantly  ate 
the  berries  consecrated  to  the  goddess  and  threw  stones 
into  the  fountains  of  fire.  As  she  did  this  she  exclaimed, 
"Jehovah  is  my  God.  He  kindled  these  fires.  I  fear 
not  Pele. "  She  then  knelt  in  prayer  to  the  true  God  and 
united  with  her  attendants  in  singing  a  Christian  hymn. 
Rev.  C.  Forbes  said  at  her  death,  in  1841  :  "This  nation 
has  lost  one  of  its  brightest  ornaments.  She  was  con- 
fessedly the  most  decided  Christian,  the  most  civilized  in 
her  manners,  and  the  most  thoroughly  read  in  the  Bible 
of  all  the  chiefs  this  nation  ever  had  ;  and  it  is  saying  no 
more  than  truth  to  assert  that  her  equal  in  these  respects 
is  not  left  in  the  nation.  The  hand  of  God  is  to  be  seen 
in  the  consistent  Christian  life  for  twenty  years  of  this 
child  of  a  degraded  paganism." 

Another  important   helper  was  Kinau,    daughter  of 
Kamehameha  I.,  wife  of  Kekuanoa,  who  in  later  times 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  183 

was  governor  of  Oahu,  and  mother  of  the  kings  Kameha- 
meha  IV.  and  Kamehameha  V.  At  the  death  of  Kaa- 
humanu  she  became  regent  during  the  minority  of  Kame- 
hameha III.,  and  afterwards  premier.  There  was  a 
critical  time  in  Hawaiian  history  when  Kauikeaouli 
(Kamehameha  III.)  assumed  the  sovereignty,  and  it  was 
feared  he  would  appoint  as  his  premier  one  of  his  disso- 
lute favorites,  and  there  was  great  rejoicing  when  finally 
he  appointed  this  Kinau,  who  proved  to  be  an  upright 
Christian  ruler. 

The  husbands  of  these  women  and  many  other  high 
chiefs  nobly  cooperated  with  the  missionaries,  as  also  did 
Kamehameha  III.  It  is  hardly  possible  now  to  realize 
how  great  was  the  influence  for  good  when  these,  the 
highest  rulers  of  the  nation,  whose  power  was  despotic, 
allied  themselves  with  the  mission  cause.  The  stars 
seemed  to  be  fighting  against  barbarism. 

The  mission  also  derived  advantage  from  the  prime- 
val habit  of  the  people  to  comply  with  the  requirements 
of  their  ancient  religion.  When  idolatry  was  abolished 
and  Christianity  approved  by  their  rulers  they  carried 
over  their  strict  observance  of  religious  requirements  to 
Christianity,  and  observed  the  Sabbath  and  Christian 
ordinances  with  remarkable  earnestness. 

The  mission  cause  was  also  greatly  promoted  by  suc- 
cessive reinforcements  of  new  missionaries  from  the  Uni- 
ted States.  The  American  Board  early  determined  to 
hasten  the  evangelization  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  that 
they  might  be  able  to  hold  them  up  to  the  world  as  an 
example  of  the  success  of  Foreign  Missions,  and  for  this 


1 84  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

purpose  sent  thither  their  best  men  in  large  numbers. 
Fifty-two  ordained  ministers,  twenty-one  lay  helpers,  and 
eighty-three  female  missionaries,  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
six  in  all,  a  strong  body  of  able,  consecrated  workers, 
labored  for  the  good  of  this  little  nation  during  the  years 
from  1820  to  1869. 

But  notwithstanding  all  these  favoring  circumstances 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  long  continued  indiiferent 
to  the  gospel.  It  took  time  to  beat  into  their  darkened 
minds  the  conception  of  a  holy  God  and  a  sense  of  their 
need  of  salvation.  In  1825  there  were  only  ten  church 
members,  and  in  1832  only  five  hundred  and  seventy- 
seven  in  all  the  islands.  The  missionaries  finally  came 
to  realize  more  than  ever  before  their  need  of  divine  help 
to  change  the  character  of  the  people. 

At  length,  in  the  years  1836  to  1839,  occurred  the 
great  religious  awakening  by  which  the  Hawaiian  people 
were  changed  from  a  heathen  to  a  Christian  nation.  This 
revival  began  first  in  an  increased  earnestness  of  the  mis- 
sionaries themselves.  In  their  annual  gatherings  in  1835 
and  1836  they  were  moved  as  never  before  to  pray,  not 
only  for  the  conversion  of  the  Hawaiians,  but  also  for 
that  of  the  whole  world.  As  they  then  returned  to  their 
homes,  some  of  them  under  sad  bereavement,  they  soon 
observed  an  increased  earnestness  of  the  church  members. 
Many  of  these  became  so  active  that  it  was  remarked  that 
they  would  have  been  ornaments  to  any  church  in  the 
United  States.  There  then  occurred  simultaneously  over 
all  the  islands  such  a  revival  of  religion  as  has  rarely  been 
seen  in  the  history  of  the  church.  The  people  were  so 


THE   HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS.  185 

moved  that  they  could  hardly  attend  to  their  usual  avo- 
cations. It  was  remarked  that  the  voices  of  children 
were  not  heard  as  usual  at  play  upon  the  beach,  but  that 
they  were  rather  to  be  heard  in  the  thickets  and  among 
the  rocks  at  prayer.  From  early  morning  till  late  at 
night  the  natives  came  in  crowds  to  the  houses  of  the 
missionaries  to  inquire  the  way  of  life.  The  number 
attending  preaching  increased  in  some  of  the  churches  to 
six  thousand.  There  was  not  an  undue  excitement,  but 
a  deep  and  solemn  earnestness.  The  natives  received  the 
divine  word  like  little  children,  with  perfect  trust,  and 
drank  in  every  word  spoken  like  men  dying  with  thirst. 
During  the  years  from  1836  to  1840  about  twenty  thou- 
sand persons  were  received  into  the  churches.  During 
the  forty  subsequent  years  the  average  number  of  annual 
admissions  to  the  churches  was  one  thousand. 

The  result  of  this  revival  was  a  progress  and  prosper- 
ity of  the  islands  that  has  continued  with  little  cessation 
to  the  present  time.  The  Hawaiians  now  awakened 
with  genuine  earnestness  to  adopt  the  manners  and  cus- 
toms of  Christian  civilization. 

One  of  the  most  important  results  was  the  change 
in  the  form  of  civil  government.  Previous  to  this  time 
the  king  and  chiefs  had  been  savage  despots  and  the 
people  under  them  like  slaves,  with  no  rights  and  no 
property,  liable  at  any  time  to  be  driven  from  their 
homes  and  deprived  of  the  little  all  they  possessed.  They 
cringed  in  abject  fear  before  their  chiefs,  as  before  supe- 
rior beings  descended  from  gods.  Now,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  new  religious  life  that  was  pervading  the 


1 86  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

nation,  the  king  and  his  chiefs  came  to  realize  their  need 
of  a  better  system  of  government.  They  therefore  in- 
vited one  of  the  missionaries,  Rev.  William  Richards, 
to  deliver  lectures  before  them  on  the  sciences  of  politi- 
cal economy  and  civil  government.  The  result  of  these 
lectures  was  that  the  king  voluntarily  relinquished  a  large 
part  of  his  lands  and  of  his  power  for  the  good  of  the 
people.  Before  this  time  he  had  been  regarded  as  owner 
of  all  the  lands ;  he  now  assigned  one  third  of  them  to 
the  government  and  one  third  to  the  common  people. 
He  appointed  a  royal  commission,  who  made  investiga- 
tions in  the  case  of  every  Hawaiian  family  and  gave 
them  titles  in  fee  simple  to  the  lands  on  which  they  and 
their  forefathers  had  lived.  He  also  employed  the  best 
legal  talent  he  could  obtain  to  form  a  code  of  laws  and 
a  constitution  of  government.  This  constitution  provid- 
ed for  a  legislature  consisting  of  nobles  appointive  by  the 
king  and  of  representatives  elective  by  the  people,  a  judi- 
ciary of  higher  and  lower  courts,  and  an  excellent  system 
of  public  schools. 

This  establishment  of  a  stable  and  well  -  ordered 
government  caused  a  great  improvement  in  the  condition 
of  the  people.  As  they  now  owned  their  lands  they  be- 
came desirous  to  better  cultivate  the  soil,  to  build  better 
houses,  and  to  obtain  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  civiliza- 
tion. As  they  had  political  equality  with  the  chiefs 
they  ventured  to  contend  for  their  rights  in  the  courts 
with  the  higher  classes,  and  even  with  the  king  himself, 
and  to  take  their  places  in  the  halls  of  legislation  to 
struggle  for  a  proper  administration  of  government. 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  187 

Great  industrial  enterprises  were  now  inaugurated,  for- 
eign capital  was  introduced  to  develop  the  resources 
of  the  country,  and  the  wealth  of  all  classes  greatly  in- 
creased. 

And  now,  because  of  having  an  excellent  system  of 
government,  the  Hawaiian  Islands  obtained  recognition 
from  other  nations  as  an  independent  country.  This 
was  needed  ;  for  the  felonious  usurpations  of  France  in 
the  Pacific  had  extended  to  these  islands,  and  a  long 
struggle  had  been  made  by  Roman-catholic  priests  and 
French  war-vessels  to  bring  them  under  the  dominion 
of  France,  English  officials  had  twice  endeavored  to 
bring  them  under  the  rule  of  Britain,  and  Russia  had 
once  sought  possession  of  them.  With  great  skill  the 
Hawaiian  government  thwarted  all  these  efforts,  and 
obtained  a  joint  treaty  from  France  and  Britain  by  which 
they  reciprocally  engaged  to  forever  respect  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  "and  never  to  take  pos- 
seesion,  either  directly  or  under  the  title  of  protectorate 
or  under  any  other  form,  of  any  part  of  the  territory  of 
which  they  are  composed. "  The  United  States  had  pre- 
viously made  a  treaty  of  friendly  recognition  of  Hawaii 
as  an  independent  country,  and  thus  this  little  group  of 
islands  took  a  place  in  the  world  as  entitled  to  the  rank 
and  privileges  of  a  Christianized  and  civilized  nation. 

Unfortunately  the  American  Board  now  entered  on 
a  course  which  seriously  imperilled  the  results  of  the  fifty 
years  of  mission  work  that  had  been  performed  in  these 
islands.  Concluding  that  their  object  of  quickly  evan- 
gelizing the  Hawaiians  had  been  accomplished,  and  that 


1 88         'THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

they  could  hold  them  up  to  the  world  as  an  illustration 
of  missionary  success,  they  determined  to  withdraw  from 
them,  and  with  this  view  sent  their  secretary,  Rev. 
Rufus  Anderson,  to  the  islands,  in  1863,  to  arrange  for 
placing  native  pastors  over  the  churches.  Finally,  on  the 
1 5th  of  June,  1870,  a  jubilee  celebration  of  fifty  years  of 
labor  was  held  with  great  pomp  in  Honolulu ;  and  in 
the  Kawaiahao  church,  in  the  presence  of  a  congregation 
of  three  thousand  people,  of  the  king  and  queen,  the  high 
officials  of  the  government,  and  the  representatives  of 
foreign  powers,  memorial  addresses  were  delivered  in 
the  Hawaiian  and  English  languages,  and  the  announce- 
ment made  that  the  work  of  the  American  Board  in  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  was  completed. 

Delightful  though  this  announcement  was  to  the 
public  abroad,  it  was  received  by  many  people  in  the 
islands  with  sad  forebodings.  It  was  evident  that  the 
Hawaiian  Christians  needed  to  be  kept  under  tutelage 
many  more  years  before  they  would  be  capable  of  properly 
managing  their  churches.  Trying  times  were  before  the 
nation,  when  they  would  need  the  help  of  the  best  wis- 
dom and  best  energy  of  the  American  missionaries.  The 
change  was  like  putting  a  ship  under  inexperienced  offi- 
cers when  breakers  are  ahead  and  storms  brewing. 

After  this  time  the  government  of  the  islands  was  con- 
ducted by  monarchs  who,  with  the  exception  of  king 
Lunalilo,  were  far  from  friendly  to  the  mission  cause. 
As  it  had  been  of  great  advantage  to  the  missionaries 
during  the  fifty  previous  years  for  the  kings  and  chiefs 
to  use  their  influence  in  their  behalf,  so  now  it  was  a 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  189 

great  disadvantage  to  them  for  the  kings  and  their  offi- 
cials to  use  their  influence  against  them.  A  struggle 
now  commenced  in  which  the  successive  monarchs 
sought  to  override  or  change  the  constitution  of  the 
government  in  order  to  obtain  power  and  money  for 
their  dissipation  and  senseless  pomp,  and  the  intelligent 
portion  of  the  people  sought  to  maintain  constitutional 
government.  To  overcome  the  opposition  to  their  plans 
the  kings  used  bribery  at  the  polls  and  in  the  legisla- 
ture, awakened  race  prejudices,  revived  heathen  sorcery, 
and  strove  to  demoralize  the  churches.  The  painful 
history  of  these  political  events  combines  with  the  story 
of  the  missionary  operations  like  the  strange  blending 
found  on  Hawaii  of  barren  lava-flows  with  tracts  of 
luxuriant  vegetation. 

Kamehameha  III.,  styled  "The  Good  King,"  died 
on  December  15,  1854,  and  was  succeeded  by  Alexander 
Liholiho,  Kamehameha  IV. ,  a  very  bright  but  dissipa- 
ted man.  During  the  reign  of  the  latter  the  ' '  Queen's 
Hospital  "  was  built  by  money  raised  by  his  personal 
solicitations  and  those  of  his  queen,  for  which  they  are 
gratefully  remembered  by  the  people.  During  this  reign 
also  the  Anglican  Church  was  introduced  from  England, " 
the  bishops  of  which  refused  to  recognize  the  American 
missionaries,  and  publicly  gave  thanks  that  "at  last  the 
true  religion  had  been  brought  to  Hawaii. "  They  obtained 
a  small  following  of  Englishmen,  but  almost  none  of  the 
natives.  They  have  been  sustained  chiefly  by  money  sent 
from  England.  This  king  died  November  30,  1863,  at 
the  age  of  only  twenty-nine  years.  His  death  was 


190  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

hastened  by  dissipation.  He  was  succeeded  by  his 
brother  Lot,  Kamehameha  V. 

This  prince  contrived  to  have  himself  proclaimed 
king  without  swearing  to  the  constitution  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  in  an  irregular  way  called  a  convention  to 
make  a  new  constitution.  Finding  that  he  could  not 
control  this  convention  he  prorogued  it,  and  taking  a 
cue  from  the  words  with  which  Kamehameha  III.  had 
established  the  previous  constitution,  "I  give  this  con- 
stitution to  my  people,"  proclaimed  a  constitution  of 
his  own  making  without  submitting  it  to  the  suffrages 
of  the  people.  The  chief  change  he  made  from  the 
former  constitution  was  in  requiring  that  the  nobles  and 
representatives,  who  had  formerly  sat  separately,  should 
sit  and  vote  together  in  one  chamber,  so  as  to  be  more 
powerfully  controlled  by  himself  and  his  cabinet.  He 
then  compelled  the  legislature  to  enact  a  law  for  licens- 
ing kahunas  as  doctors  and  introduced  kahunas  with  the 
licentious  hula  dancers  into  his  palace,  thereby  legalizing 
the  essential  elements  of  heathenism  :  its  loathsome  sen- 
suality, its  terrorizing  sorcery,  and  its  worship  of  demons 
and  even  of  idols.  This  was  like  the  act  of  "  Jeroboam 
the  son  of  Nebat,  who  made  Israel  to  sin."  After  this 
sorcery  became  a  powerful  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
the  monarchs  for  carrying  elections.  This  king  died  on 
December  n,  1872,  at  the  age  of  forty-nine  years,  and 
with  him  ended  the  line  of  the  Kamehamehas. 

The  legislature  was  now  called  to  elect  a  king,  and 
made  choice  of  William  Lunalilo,  a  grandson  of  the 
chief  who  killed  Capt.  Cook  and  the  highest  in  rank  of 


I 


I 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  193 

all  the  chiefs  in  the  kingdom.  The  rival  candidate  for 
the  throne  was  David  Kalakaua,  who  now  instigated  the 
soldiers  in  the  barracks  to  revolt,  in  order  to  gain  the 
throne  for  himself,  but  the  revolt  was  skilfully  quelled. 
Lunalilo  died  on  January  18,  1874,-  after  a  reign  of  only 
one  year  and  twenty-five  days.  He  left  a  noble  monu- 
ment for  himself  in  his  bequest  of  property  worth  a 
quarter  of  a  million  dollars  for  the  establishment  of  a 
home  for  aged  Hawaiians. 

The  legislature  was  then  again  summoned  to  elect  a 
king.  There  were  two  candidates  —  the  ex-queen  Em- 
ma, the  relict  of  Kamehameha  IV.,  and  the  rebel 
prince,  David  Kalakaua.  The  issue  in  the  election  was 
a  proposed  reciprocity  treaty  with  the  United  States. 
As  Emma  was  partly  of  British  extraction,  and  a  patron 
of  the  Anglican  Church,  the  foreign  community  threw 
its  influence  for  David  Kalakaua,  and  he  was  elected  on 
February  12,  1874.  As  soon  as  the  vote  was  announced 
a  mob  of  Emma's  adherents  attacked  the  legislature, 
but  they  were  quickly  dispersed  by  marines  that  were 
landed  by  request  of  the  cabinet  from  American  and 
British  war-ships  in  the  harbor.  The  reciprocity  treaty 
was  then  negotiated,  and  went  into  effect  on  September 
9,  1876,  and  greatly  promoted  the  industrial  prosperity 
of  the  islands. 

Encouraged  by  the  increasing  wealth  of  the  country, 
Kalakaua  now  entered  on  a  course  of  extravagance, 
usurpation  and  paganism  that  to  the  islands,  which  had 
previously  enjoyed  a  tolerably  good  government,  was 
like  one  of  the  mountain  torrents  that  sudden  cloud- 
9 


IQ4  THE    ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

bursts  send  down  their  valleys  to  devastate  their  culti- 
vated fields.  The  scope  of  this  sketch  will  not  admit  of 
more  than  an  allusion  to  the  chief  events  of  his  reign  : 
his  expensive  journey  around  the  world,  his  costly  coro- 
nation nine  years  after  his  accession  to  the  throne,  his 
coinage  of  a  million  dollars  at  an  expense  of  $150,000, 
his  scheme  for  a  sort  of  empire  of  the  Pacific,  his  promo- 
tion of  the  traffic  in  ardent  spirits  and  opium,  and  his  fre- 
quent arbitrary  changes  of  his  cabinet,  which  gave  it  the 
name  of  being  ' '  kaleidoscopic. " 

Through  all  the  changes  of  his  cabinet  one  minister 
was  retained,  Walter  M.  Gibson.  He  had  gone  to  the 
islands  as  an  emissary  of  Brigham  Young  and  had  en- 
riched himself  by  Mormonism,  and  afterwards  renounced 
that  irreligion  and  had  been  excommunicated  by  the  Lat- 
ter-day Saints,  "handed  over  to  Satan,  to  be  buffetted 
for  a  thousand  years,"  because  he  would  not  return  a 
thousand  dollars  lent  to  him  by  Brigham  Young.  He 
posed  as  the  friend  of  the  Polynesian  race  against  the 
white  people,  and  thereby  got  himself  elected  to  the 
legislature,  and  finally  to  the  leadership  of  the  king's 
cabinet,  and  for  many  years  aided  the  king  in  his  prodi- 
gality and  usurpations. 

The  worst  influences  of  Kalakaua  were  exerted  to 
demoralize  the  churches,  the  only  remaining  bulwark 
against  his  corrupt  measures.  The  faithful  pastors  of 
these  churches  found  their  influence  counteracted  by 
sorcerers  who  were  employed  by  the  king,  and  their 
support  cut  off  through  the  exertions  of  government 
officials,  while  large  offers  of  help  were  made  if  they 


QUEEN  EMMA. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


THE  HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  197 

would  favor  the  king's  projects.  On  one  occasion  the 
king  persuaded  the  most  of  them  to  withdraw  from  the 
Missionary  Association  in  order  to  form  a  state  church 
under  himself  as  their  "Father;"  and  this  scheme  was 
barely  defeated  by  the  fierce  opposition  of  Rev.  J.  Waia- 
mau,  the  pastor  of  the  Kaumakapili  Church  of  Honolu- 
lu. It  seemed  for  a  while  that  there  would  be  an  out- 
break of  the  ancient  heathenism  through  the  verdant 
fields  and  luxuriant  forests  of  the  islands. 

The  indignation  of  the  better  classes  against  the  evil 
course  of  the  king  rose  to  a  white  heat  when  at  last  he 
accepted  a  bribe  to  sell  the  license  for  the  opium  traffic 
to  a  Chinaman  for  $75,000,  and  then,  retaining  this 
money,  gave  the  license  to  another  Chinaman  for  another 
bribe  of  $80,000.  The  people  of  all  classes  then  assem- 
bled in  a  great  mass-meeting  and  demanded  that  he 
should  dismiss  the  corrupt  Gibson  cabinet  and  proclaim 
a  new  constitution  that  would  properly  limit  his  power. 
Although  he  had  troops  and  munitions  of  war  and  the 
people  were  unarmed  he  did  not  dare  to  resist  the  fierce 
public  sentiment,  and  signed  a  constitution  which  pro- 
vided that  the  upper  branch  of  the  legislature  should  be 
elected  by  the  people  voting  on  a  property  qualification, 
instead  of  being  appointed  by  himself;  that  the  cabinet 
should  be  removable  only  by  an  act  of  the  legislature, 
and  that  he  could  approve  or  veto  acts  of  the  legislature 
only  with  the  concurrence  of  his  cabinet. 

During  these  events  the  king's  sister,  Mrs.  Lydia 
Liliuokalani  Dominis,  was  in  England.  On  her  return 
she  fiercely  charged  him  with  cowardice  in  signing  the 


198  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

new  constitution,  and  conspired  with  several  prominent 
men  to  compel  him  to  abdicate  in  her  favor.  Failing  in 
this  she  formed  a  secret  league  of  the  natives  to  over- 
throw the  government,  and  with  the  aid  of  Robert  Wil- 
cox,  a  half-caste,  on  the  3Oth  of  July,  1889,  gathered 
natives  to  her  house  and  armed  them  with  rifles  and 
cannon.  They  suddenly  seized  the  government  build- 
ings, the  palace  and  the  military  barracks,  expecting 
that  there  would  be  an  uprising  of  the  whole  native  pop- 
ulation in  their  favor.  But  the  white  residents  surrounded 
the  palace  and  by  continual  firing  drove  the  rebels  from 
their  cannon,  and  finally,  by  dynamite  bombs,  compelled 
them  to  surrender.  Wilcox  was  tried  for  treason  and 
acquitted  by  a  native  jury,  and  afterwards  repeatedly 
elected  by  the  natives  to  the  legislature. 

After  the  death  in  San  Francisco  of  King  Kalakaua, 
on  the  2Oth  of  January,  1891,  his  sister  reluctantly  took 
the  oath  to  maintain  the  constitution  and  therefore  was 
declared  Queen,  with  the  title  Liliuokalani.  It  was 
hoped  that  she  would  be  restrained  by  her  good  cabinet 
and  the  requirements  of  the  constitution  ;  but  she  strug- 
gled to  overcome  all  limitations  to  her  power,  and  at 
length  succeeded  in  removing  her  good  cabinet  and  ap- 
pointing a  new  cabinet  of  her  own  accessaries.  She 
then  signed  bills  for  the  opium  traffic  and  the  Louisiana 
Lottery,  and  on  the  i4th  of  January,  1893,  undertook  to 
proclaim  a  new  constitution  which  would  give  her  the 
power  of  removing,  as  well  as  appointing,  the  judges  of 
the  Supreme  Court  and  disfranchise  almost  all  the  white 
population.  Even  her  corrupt  cabinet  shrank  from  sus- 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  199 

taining  her  in  this  effort  to  subvert  the  government,  and 
turned  to  the  leading  citizens  for  aid  in  maintaining  good 
order  and  peace.  The  community  now  again  assembled 
in  a  great  mass-meeting  and  established  a  provisional 
government  which  should  seek  annexation  to  the  United 
States.  This  new  government  was  at  once  recognized 
by  the  United  States  and  the  other  civilized  nations. 

It  is  delightful  to  note  that  during  these  unhappy 
struggles  the  most  intelligent  native  Hawaiians,  their 
leading  clergymen  and  members  of  the  legislature,  resist- 
ed the  evil  course  of  the  monarchs  at  no  little  peril  to 
themselves.  The  traveller  on  Hawaii  sometimes  finds 
trees  of  gorgeous  bloom  rising  alone  out  of  the  ancient 
lava-flows,  seeming  the  more  beautiful  by  contrast  with 
their  gloomy  surroundings.  Thus  the  steadfast  integrity 
of  these  Hawaiians  appears  the  more  admirable  because 
of  its  continuance  amid  the  almost  universal  corrup- 
tion of  the  people  and  the  wiles  and  threats  of  the  mon- 
archs. 

During  1 8  93  a  treaty  of  annexation  of  Hawaii  to  the 
United  States  was  partly  negotiated  with  President  Har- 
rison, but  it  was  withdrawn  by  his  successor  on  the  alle- 
gation that  the  influence  of  American  officials  and  troops 
aided  in  the  dethronement  of  the  queen.  For  more  than 
a  year  the  Hawaiian  government  was  harassed  by  con- 
spiracies for  the  restoration  of  the  ex-queen  to  the  throne. 

Finally  the  provisional  government,  with  the  aid  of 
delegates  from  every  district  of  the  islands,  formed  a  con- 
stitution of  republican  government ;  and  on  the  Fourth 
of  July,  1894,  President  Dole  proclaimed  the  new  Re- 


200  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

public  from  the  steps  of  the  lolani  Palace  in  the  presence 
of  a  great  concourse  of  the  people.  As  he  concluded  his 
brief  and  appropriate  address  by  raising  his  hand  towards 
heaven  and  exclaiming,  "God  save  the  Republic  !"  the 
intense  feelings  of  the  spectators  broke  forth  in  immense 
applause,  and  a  huge  flag  was  raised  with  salutes  of  artil- 
lery. 

Thus  the  enterprise  of  Christian  benevolence  that  was 
begun  seventy  years  before  among  pagan  islanders,  and 
continued  with  perseverance,  forbearance  and  courage 
under  the  trials  of  monarchy,  bore  fruit  in  the  establish- 
ment of  a  civil  government  that  is  equal  to  the  best  gov- 
ernments of  enlightened  countries. 

In  January,  1895,  an  insane  attempt  was  made  to 
overthrow  this  government  and  reinstate  Liliuokalani. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  withdrawal  of  all  war-ships  from 
Honolulu,  a  few  former  officials  of  the  monarchy  and 
foreign  adventurers  imported  firearms  and  ammunition, 
armed  over  two  hundred  reckless  Hawaiians  at  a  place 
near  Diamond  Head,  about  two  miles  from  Honolulu, 
and  prepared  to  storm  Honolulu  by  night  with  dynamite 
bombs.  Providentially  in  the  evening,  before  the  night 
set  for  this  attack,  the  6th  of  January,  some  of  these  con- 
spirators attracted  the  attention  of  the  police  by  their 
disorderly  conduct,  under  the  influence  of  gin,  and  the 
plot  was  discovered.  '  In  the  struggle  that  ensued  with 
the  police  the  conspirators  killed  Charles  Carter,  one  of 
the  leading  citizens.  They  then  rushed  to  attack  the 
city,  but  fortunately  they  mistook  a  small  company  of 
citizen  guards,  that  met  them  in  the  darkness,  for  a 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  203 

strong  force,  and  withdrew  to  the  mountains.  The  gov- 
ernment immediately  called  out  its  troops  and  volunteer 
bands  of  citizens,  and  after  several  days  of  fighting  cap- 
tured all  these  rebels.  They  were  tried  by  court-martial 
and  sentenced  to  various  punishments  of  fines  and  im- 
prisonment. As  the  rebellion  had  been  planned  in  the 
house  of  the  ex-queen,  and  dynamite  bombs  were  stored 
in  this  building,  she  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  mis- 
prision.  She  hastened  to  abdicate  all  claims  to  the 
throne  and  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Repub- 
lic. She  was  tried  in  court-martial  and  convicted,  and 
sentenced  to  five  years'  imprisonment. 

All  this  struggle  with  a  pagan  monarchy  would 
doubtless  never  have  occurred  if  the  mission  work  had 
been  continued  in  the  islands,  and  the  natives  contin- 
ually lifted  to  a  higher  character  and  nerved  to  resist 
the  temptations  and  threats  of  corrupt  rulers. 

But  notwithstanding  these  demoralizing  influences 
the  Hawaiian  islands  have  grown  in  wealth,  culture 
and  material  prosperity.  The  revenue  of  the  govern- 
ment has  increased  to  $1,570,000,  the  exports  to  the 
value  of  $13,870,00x3,  and  the  imports  to  the  value  of 
$5,438,000.  There  are  no  poorhouses  in  the  islands, 
and  no  occasions  for  them.  All  the  people  are  in  fairly 
comfortable  circumstances,  and  have  some  degree  of  edu- 
cation ;  all  the  children  are  taught  the  English  language 
in  the  public  schools  ;  the  natives  are  a  peaceful  and  law- 
abiding  people  ;  the  number  of  convicts  in  prison  is  only 
one-third  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  population,  and  the 
greater  part  of  these  are  Asiatics  and  Portuguese. 


204  THE  ISLANDS    OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

The  churches  of  the  Hawaiian  islands  have  survived 
the  corrupting  influences  of  the  Hawaiian  monarchs, 
but  have  greatly  suffered,  and  the  type  of  their  piety  is 
lower  than  it  was  thirty  years  ago. 

A  happy  result  of  the  evangelization  of  the  natives 
has  been  the  formation  of  a  Christian  colony,  of  the  de- 
scendants of  the  missionaries  and  of  foreigners  who 
otherwise  would  never  have  been  attracted  to  the  islands. 
In  this  portion  of  the  community  there  are  six  churches 
of  the  English-speaking  people.  The  largest  of  these 
is  the  Union  Church  of  Honolulu,  which  in  1893  had  a 
membership  of  460,  and  built,  and  dedicated  without 
debt,  a  house  for  worship  at  a  cost  of  $125,000,  and  has 
always  most  liberally  contributed  to  the  Hawaiian  Home 
and  Foreign  Mission  enterprises.  In  these  enterprises 
churches  have  been  organized  of  the  Chinese,  with  150 
members,  of  the  Japanese,  with  120  members,  and  of 
the  Portuguese,  with  about  100  members.  Besides  the 
excellent  Government  schools  there  is  the  noble  Oahu 
College,  for  higher  education,  and  many  Christian  board- 
ing-schools for  Hawaiian  children.  One  of  these  board- 
ing-schools, the  "Kamehameha  School,"  was  endowed 
by  Mrs.  Charles  R.  Bishop  by  an  investment  worth 
$500,000.  There  is  also  the  North  Pacific  Missionary 
Institute,  which  has  been  conducted  by  Rev.  C.  M. 
Hyde,  D.  D.,  and  Rev.  H.  H.  Parker,  for  supplying 
the  churches  and  foreign  fields  with  ordained  ministers. 
Foreign  mission  enterprises  have  been  carried  on  with 
great  success  by  the  aid  of  native  Hawaiians  in  the 
Micronesian  and  Marquesas  Islands.  The  Hawaiian 


THE  UNION  CHURCH  AT  HONOLULU. 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  2O7 

islands  are  thus  like  a  little  world  by  themselves,  with 
their  Evangelical  Associations,  their  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association,  their  Woman's  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  and  their  Home  and  Foreign  Missions. 

If  the  reader  were  to  land  in  Honolulu  to-day  he 
might  almost  think  he  was  in  a  city  in  the  United  States, 
except  for  a  rare  beauty  of  tropical  vegetation.  He 
would  see  street  cars,  and  telegraph  and  telephone  lines, 
and  electric  lights.  He  would  find  nineteen  steam- 
ers plying  between  the  islands,  and  great  palatial  packets 
running  to  America,  Asia,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand. 
He  would  see  the  natives  dressed  like  Americans,  and 
engaged  in  important  work  as  teachers,  lawyers,  minis- 
ters and  officers  of  government.  Where  seventy  years 
ago  there  was  an  unclothed  race  of  savages  he  would 
find  a  civilized  community,  who  live  as  Americans, 
support  their  own  churches,  and  with  marvellous  suc- 
cess are  carrying  on  foreign  missions. 

All  this  change  from  barbarism  to  civilization  has 
cost  the  American  churches,  in  benevolent  contributions 
through  sixty  years,  a  little  over  a  million  dollars.  This 
investment  has  paid,  even  in  dollars  and  cents.  The 
annual  income  of  the  vessels  merely  carrying  the  com- 
merce of  these  islands  is  a  million  dollars,  not  to  speak 
of  the  commerce  itself,  which  is  worth  $20,000,000,  and 
will  increase  to  twice  that  amount. 

This  investment  has  paid  in  the  security  of  life  and 
property  that  has  thereby  been  caused.  Instead  of 
these  islands  being  a  pirates'  lair,  as  without  the  mission 
enterprise  they  would  have  been,  they  are  safe  and  en- 


208  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

chanting  places  of  resort.  The  United  States  spent 
$6,000,000  in  subduing  the  little  tribe  of  Modocs 
in  California,  in  ten  years  $232,000,000  in  wars  with 
Indians,  and  in  their  whole  history  $500,000,000  in 
such  wars ;  but  the  Hawaiians  are  far  better  renovated 
by  a  much  smaller  expenditure. 

This  investment  has  paid  in  the  social  and  moral 
good  that  has  been  thereby  caused,  and  which  cannot 
be  estimated  in  money.  The  United  States  has  spent 
$50,000,000  in  feeding  and  clothing  Indians,  while  by 
mission  enterprise  much  more  could  have  been  accom- 
plished for  them  at  far  less  expense. 

This  investment  has  paid  also  in  the  50,000  per- 
sons who  have  been  received  into  the  churches,  the  most 
of  them,  it  may  be  hoped,  redeemed  to  everlasting  life. 
It  is  true  that  these  converts  have  not  risen  to  the  high 
character  that  has  been  displayed  in  countries  of  older 
civilization,  and  that  in  recent  times  they  have  greatly 
degenerated.  As  we  go  to  them  with  high  standards  of 
character,  to  which  our  race  has  come  through  centuries 
of  Christian  privilege,  we  see  much  in  them  to  regret ; 
but  when  we  call  to  mind  what  they  formerly  were,  and 
consider  from  what  depths  of  degradation  they  have 
been  lifted,  we  cannot  be  too  thankful  to  God  for  what 
they  are.  The  words  that  were  once  uttered  by  the 
saintly  John  Newton  of  himself  might  well  be  adopted 
by  them  :  "I  am  not  what  I  was ;  I  am  not  what  I 
should  be  ;  I  am  not  what  I  shall  be  :  but  by  the  grace 
of  God  I  am  what  I  am."  All  that  they  are,  all  their 
prosperity  and  progress,  all  the  safety  and  delight  of 


A  R  y 

UNIVERSITY 

j\V 

CALU 


THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS.  211 

life  among  them,  is  because  of  the  grace  of  God ;  be- 
cause, in  answer  to  prayer,  God  poured  out  his  Spirit  in 
connection  with  the  labors  of  the  missionaries  among 
them. 

The  prospect  now  is,  that  in  closer  relations  with 
the  United  States  and  other  enlightened  countries,  and 
in  the  increasing  commerce  that  will  be  stimulated  by 
the  future  construction  of  the  Nicaragua  Canal  and  the 
further  development  of  great  lines  of  trans-oceanic  navi- 
gation, the  Hawaiian  Islands  will  grow  in  wealth,  popu- 
lation and  prosperity.  The  present  population  is  esti- 
mated at  about  99,000.  It  consists  of  33,000  Ha- 
waiians,  8,000  half-castes,  23,000  Japanese,  15,000 
Chinese,  13,000  Portuguese,  and  7,000  foreign  and 
Hawaiian-born  Americans  and  Europeans.  The  conver- 
sion of  the  Hawaiians  has  not  been  a  mere  ' '  deathbed 
repentance ;"  it  will  continue  in  their  blending  with 
foreign  nationalities  and  in  the  Christian  character  of 
the  entire  future  population,  of  whatever  races  it  may 
consist.  Though  new  difficulties  will  doubtless  arise 
in  the  way  of  their  Christian  progress,  it  may  be  be- 
lieved that  the  same  God,  who  by  wonderful  providences 
and  blessed  outpourings  of  his  Spirit  has  been  with  them 
in  former  years,  will  continue  with  them  in  the  future, 
and  that  the  Hawaiian  Islands  will  ever  stand  as  a 
monument  of  his  blessing  on  the  cause  of  Christian 
missions. 

Hawaii's  national  motto  is,  ' '  Ua  mau  ka  aea  o  ka 
aina  ika  pono, "  ' '  The  life  of  the  country  is  in  right- 
eousness. " 


212  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

Hawaii,  victor  o'er  the  deep, 

From  briny  surge  to  sunlight  risen, 
With  feet  firm  set  on  adamant, 

With  brow  in  purpling  light  of  heaven, 
With  strength  of  rock  and  heart  of  fire, 

Amid  the  ocean's  mighty  flow, 
In  tempest  blast  and  earthquake  throe 

Triumphant,  crowned  with  shining  snow; 

Victorious  over  Pele's  fire, 

Her  flaming  floods  and  awful  gloom 
.Of  sulphurous  caves  and  lava  wastes 

Transformed  to  gorgeous  tropic  bloom ; 
Where  stretched  her  tracts  of  barren  rock, 

Where  rose  her  stifling  brimstone  fumes, 
Now  spread  sweet  fields  of  living  green, 

And  wave  triumphant  cocoa  plumes. 

Victorious  over  heathenism, 

From  the  dark  depths  of  pagan  night, 
From  gloomy  thrall  of  demon  hordes, 

Now  raised  by  Heaven's  loving  might 
To  blissful  liberty  and  light, 

And  bright  with  wisdom's  glorious  rays, 
Awakening  distant  pagan  isles 

To  join  her  joyful  hymns  of  praise. 

Victorious  over  anarchism, 

Its  wild  and  fierce  conspiracy 
With  fire  and  sword  and  dynamite 

Forgot  in  calm  tranquility ; 
The  turbulent  uprisings  quelled, 
,     And  rightful  law  enthroned  above, 
Unfolding  truth  and  righteousness 
And  blooming  into  peace  and  love. 

Upon  Hawaii  Heaven  shine ! 

Dispel  her  lingering  shades  of  night ; 
From  ills  within  and  foes  without 

Protect  her  with  Jehovah's  might  ; 
Awake  her  slumbering  energies, 

That  nobler  than  her  mountains  grand, 
And  brighter  than  her  sunlit  seas, 

She  may  by  God's  help  ever  stand  ! 


140 13ft 


MARQUESAS 

O  K 

WASHINGTON  1 


JferyeSt  Rocks 

NttkuKivaV^-j  Hona,hu.n,ct  or 

^Marehandu^.          0  Washington  I.          ^ 


or 


10 


or 


P 


or 


OF  THR 

UNIVERSITY 


THE   MARQUESAS  ISLANDS.  215 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE    MARQUESAS    ISLANDS. 

THE  history  of  the  Marquesas  Islands  is  like  a  con- 
tinuation of  that  of  the  Society  and  Hawaiian  groups ; 
as  their  first  missionaries  came  from  Tahiti  and  those  of 
subsequent  times  and  of  the  present  time  are  from 
Hawaii,  and  as  they  will  probably  pass  again  under  the 
care  of  Tahitian  missionaries,  since  France  owns  these 
islands  together  with  Tahiti  and  the  adjacent  groups. 

The  Marquesas  Islands  lie  in  two  parallel  groups, 
thirteen  in  all,  trending  from  southeast  to  northwest, 
between  latitudes  8°  and  11°  south,  and  longitudes  133° 
and  150°  west.  The  southern  group  was  discovered 
July  21,  1595,  by  Alvaro  Mendafia  de  Neyra,  as  he 
was  voyaging  with  four  ships  to  colonize  the  Solomon 
Islands,  and  by  him  named  Marquesas  de  Mendoca,  in 
honor  of  the  viceroy  of  Peru.  The  northern  group, 
though  near  by,  was  not  discovered  until  nearly  two 
hundred  years  later,  in  1791,  when  they  were  seen  by 
Capt.  Ingraham  of  Boston  and  named  Washington  Isl- 
ands. But  the  term  Marquesas  now  embraces  both 
groups. 

It  seems  to  be  the  rule  that  the  further  east  one  goes, 
in  the  Pacific,  the  more  wild,  broken  and  picturesque 
are  the  mountains.  The  Marquesas  are  even  more  re- 
markable in  this  respect  than  the  Society  Islands,  ex- 


2l6  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

cepting  Moorea.  The  terrific  storms  of  the  Western 
Pacific  have  not  reached  this  part  of  the  ocean  with 
sufficient  violence  to  cause  excessive  erosion,  nor  have 
frosts  here  prevailed  to  disintegrate  the  beetling  cliffs, 
the  sharp  ridges  and  the  spire-like  crags ;  but  all  the 
mountain  forms,  even  the  most  frail  and  fragile,  still 
seem  to  stand  as  when  originally  upheaved  and  rent  by 
volcanic  forces. 

"The  coasts  of  these  islands  rise  from  the  water 
like  walls.  Deep  gorges,  serrated  ridges,  lofty  promon- 
tories with  sea  walls  plunging  thousands  of  feet  into  the 
sea,  cones  pointed  and  truncated,  rocky  minarets,  and 
confused  masses  of  rocks,  scoria,  and  tufa,  testify  to 
a  terrific  rage  of  Plutonic  agencies  in  unknown  ages  past. 
Many  of  the  ridges  are  so  precipitous  and  lofty  that  they 
cannot  be  crossed  by  man  ;  and  many  of  the  rocky  ribs 
come  down  laterally  from  the  lofty  spine,  or  dividing 
ridge,  on  an  angle  of  thirty  degrees,  and  form  subma- 
rine and  subaerial  buttresses,  leaving  no  passage  except 
by  canoes.  The  lowest  of  these  inhabited  islands  reaches 
a  height  of  2,430  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  and  the 
highest  7,360.  Most  of  them  have  fertile  valleys  half  a 
mile  to  three  miles  deep  and  from  one  tenth  of  a  mile  to 
a  mile  wide,  filled  with  luxuriant  shrubs,  vines  and  mag- 
nificent trees,  beneath  which  rills  of  pure  water,  falling 
from  high  inland  cliffs,  ripple  along  rocky  and  shaded 
beds  to  the  ocean."  (Coan's  "  Life  in  Hawaii.") 

The  largest  of  these  islands  is  Nukuhiva,  named  after 
its  discover  ' '  Marchand. "  It  is  seventy  miles  in  cir- 
cumference, and  7,360  feet  high  at  its  highest  peak. 


THE   MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  2 1/ 

' '  Almost  every  pinnacle  of  this  island  is  carpeted  with 
vines ;  even  on  the  perpendicular  walls  of  its  precipices  a 
tapestry  of  shrubs  and  verdure  hangs.  On  the  south  side 
is  the  bay,  Taiohae,  or  Anna-Maria,  which  is  shaped  like 
a  horse-shoe  and  is  two  miles  deep,  a  mile  broad  at  the 
centre  and  half  a  mile  broad  at  the  entrance,  where  it  is 
flanked  by  two  grand  headlands  over  500  feet  high.  Its 
shore  is  a  beautiful  crescent  of  sand  interrupted  here  and 
there  with  shingle  and  bowlders."  Says  H.  Melville 
( ' '  Typee"),  ' '  No  description  can  do  justice  to  the  beauty 
of  the  scenery  of  this  bay.  The  mountains  shut  in  a  vast 
amphitheatre  of  deep  glens,  overgrown  with  vines  and 
gleaming  with  cascades.  I  felt  regret  that  a  scene  so 
enchanting  was  hidden  from  the  world  in  these  remote 
seas."  Of  a  view  he  obtained  from  the  summit  of  the 
mountain  he  says,  ' '  Had  a  glimpse  of  the  gardens  of 
Paradise  been  given  me  I  could  scarcely  have  been  more 
ravished  with  the  sight. " 

About  forty  miles  south  of  this  island  is  Uapou,  or 
Adam  Island,  on  the  west  side  of  which  is  the  harbor 
Hakahekau.  From  this  harbor  a  valley,  one  fourth  of  a 
mile  wide,  extends  three  miles  inland,  "crowded  with 
shrubbery,  evergreen  vines  and  lofty  trees.  The  moun- 
tains, ridges  and  towering  cones  of  this  island  are  very 
grand.  Within  a  vast  amphitheatre  of  rugged  hills, 
which  send  down  their  spurs  to  the  shore,  buttressed  by 
lofty  precipices,  are  eight  remarkable  columns,  200  to 
300  feet  high  and  50  to  100  feet  in  diameter,  rising  in 
solitary  grandeur  like  a  castellated  fortress."  (Coan). 

East  of  this  island,  about  sixty  miles  distant  is  Ha- 


218  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

vaoa,  named  La  Dominica  by  Mendana,  because  discov- 
ered on  the  Sabbath  day.  On  the  northeast  side  of  this 
island  is  the  valley  Puamau,  "one  mile  in  length  and 
one  quarter  of  a  mile  wide,  a  paradise  of  natural  loveli- 
ness, charming  forever  with  the  music  of  its  rippling 
stream."  On  the  south  side  is  Atuona,  which  is  said  to 
be  the  most  verdant  valley  in  the  Marquesas.  Bread- 
fruit, oranges,  cocoanuts,  limes  and  vi-apples  abound. 
In  nine  years  after  planting  vi-apples  grew  to  be  gigantic 
trees,  two  feet  in  diameter  and  seventy  feet  high,  loaded 
with  fruit.  Of  this  Island  Geo.  Forster  (Cook's  ' '  Voya- 
ges") says,  "  We  saw  many  craggy  rocks  likes  spires  and 
several  hollow  summits  piled  up  in  the  centre  of  the 
island.  All  the  eastern  part  is  a  prodigious  steep 
and  almost  perpendicular  wall  of  a  great  height,  which 
forms  a  sharp  ridge  shattered  into  spires  and  precipices. 
On  the  north  side  rises  a  peak.  All  the  north  is  a  black 
burnt  hill,  of  which  the  rock  is  vaulted  along  the  shore, 
and  the  top  clad  to  the  summit  with  casuarinas.  Valleys 
filled  with  trees  lead  up  to  the  summit. "  Of  the  view 
from  the  highest  point  of  this  island  Mr.  Coan  says, 
"Around  us  was  a  vast  panorama  of  cones,  ridges,  spurs 
and  valleys.  Hills  heaped  on  hills  and  spires  bristling 
among  spires,  the  whole  appeared  as  if  a  sea  of  molten 
rocks,  while  raging,  tossing  and  spouting  in  angry  bil- 
lows, had  been  suddenly  solidified  by  an  omnipotent 
power.  It  was  a  wild  assemblage  of  hills  and  ridges,  of 
gulfs  and  chasms,  of  towers  and  precipices." 

At  a  little  distance  south  of  Hivaoa  is  Tahuata,  or 
Christiana,  like  the  rest  of  the  group  "a  great  heap  of 


BREADFRUIT  TREE. 


THE   MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  221 

scoria,  tufa,  cinders,  and  basaltic  lavas,  bristling  with 
jagged  points,  traversed  with  sharp  and  angular  ridges, 
and  rent  with  deep  and  awful  chasms."  The  valley 
Vaitohu,  at  Resolution  Bay  on  the  west,  one  half  mile 
wide  by  one  half  deep,  is  shut  in  by  rugged  precipices 
2,000  feet  high  and  filled  with  breadfruit,  cocoa-palm, 
vi,  orange,  guava,  and  other  trees. 

The  southermost  island  of  this  group  is  Fatuhiva, 
called  also  Magdalena.  The  chief  valley  of  this  island 
is  Omoa,  one  mile  wide  and  three  miles  deep,  having 
five  lateral  branches  one  half  a  mile  or  more  deep,  all 
walled  in  by  towering  precipices  and  filled  with  magnifi- 
cent vegetation. 

The  inhabitants  of  these  islands  are  the  same  Polyne- 
sian race  that  is  found  in  nearly  all  the  Pacific.  So 
similar  is  their  language  to  that  of  Hawaii  that  they 
easily  read  Hawaiian  Bibles  and  other  books.  They  are 
described  as  "  physically  the  most  perfect  of  the  human 
species,  many  of  them  six  feet  high,  muscular,  symmet- 
rical, agile,  graceful,  and  lighter  in  complexion  than 
Tahitians. "  The  American  missionaries  remarked  that 
they  were  more  noble  in  form  and  stature  than  the 
Hawaiians,  and  the  women,  vile  as  they  were,  more 
comely,  though  some  of  the  people  are  horribly  tat- 
tooed. The  artistic  genius  of  this  people  found  expres- 
sion in  grotesque  tattooing  and  in  fashioning  head- 
dresses. ' '  The  faces  of  the  men  were  pictured  with 
broad  stripes,  or  sometimes  crowded  with  figures  of 
sharks,  lizards,  and  other  animals,  with  open  mouths 
and  extended  claws." 
10 


222  THE   ISLANDS    OF   THE  PACIFIC. 

They  also  shaved  their  heads  in  a  way  equally  fantas- 
tic. Some  would  shave  only  the  crown  or  one  side ; 
some  would  leave  a  small  tuft  of  hair  on  the  apex  only  ; 
others  would  shave  a  zone  quite  around  the  centre  of  the 
head  ;  and  others  still  would  shave  several  such  belts. 

They  went  almost  entirely  unclothed,  there  being  little 
need  of  their  scanty  scarfs  of  bark-tapa  in  their  perpetu- 
ally warm  climate. 

Mrs.  Alexander,  of  the  Hawaiian  Mission,  remarked 
of  her  first  view  of  the  Marquesans,  "They  made  me 
think  of  devils.  They  had  long  hair  tied  in  two  bunches 
on  the  top  of  their  heads.  Their  faces  were  tattooed 
black.  Strings  of  sharks'  teeth  were  strung  around  their 
necks,  and  tufts  of  human  hair  bound  to  their  waist  and 
ankles."  The  description  given  of  them  by  Geo.  For- 
ster  is  that  ''they  were  naked  except  the  malo,  and  ex- 
cessively tattooed.  They  wore  on  their  heads  a  kind  of 
diadem,  consisting  of  a  flat  bandage  of  cocoanut  husk 
in  the  centre  of  which  were  fixed  several  round  pieces  of 
mother-of-pearl,  some  five  inches  in  diameter,  and  around 
these  plates  of  tortoise-shell  perforated  into  curious  fig- 
ures. Several  tufts  of  black  long  cocks'  feathers  formed 
the  plumes  to  this  head-dress,  which  was  really  beautiful, 
and  noble  in  its  kind.  Some  wore  round  coronets  of 
the  small  ligulated  feathers  of  the  man-of-war  bird,  and 
others  circlets  from  which  several  ranges  of  twisted 
strings  of  cocoanut  core  diverged  round  the  head.  In 
their  ears  they  had  two  flat  pieces  of  a  "light  wood  of 
an  oval  shape  about  three  inches  long,  painted  white, 
and  covering  the  whole  ear.  Bunches  of  human  hair 


THE   MARQUESAS  ISLANDS.  223 

were  tied  on  a  string  round  their  waists,  arms,  knees, 
and  ankles.  The  leaders  wore  on  the  breast  a  gorget  of 
a  light  wood,  like  cork,  glued  together  in  a  semicircular 
form,  a  quantity  of  scarlet  berries  (abrous  precatorius) 
glued  in  a  great  number  of  rows  around  it. " 

Their  houses  were  on  platforms  of  stones,  and  were 
formed  of  bamboos  closely  joined  together,  rising  to  a 
ridge-pole  and  covered  with  breadfruit  leaves.  The 
furniture  of  their  dwellings  was  ornamented  with  human 
bones  and  their  weapons  of  war  with  human  hair.  Their 
food  consisted  chiefly  of  breadfruit,  cocoanuts  and  fish. 

In  character  the  Marquesans  were  more  bold,  fierce 
and  bloodthirsty  than  their  Polynesian  neighbors.  Says 
Mr.  Bingham  ("Hawaiian  Islands"),  "The  men  were 
distinguished  more  for  pride  and  independence  of  feeling 
than  any  other  natives  in  the  Pacific  isles.  Our  missionaries 
were  struck  with  the  lofty  air  with  which  these  swarthy 
half-naked  sons  of  ignorance  would  pace  the  deck  of 
a  foreign  vessel,  as  if  the  ship  and  the  ocean  were  at  their 
command,  though  they  were  as  poor  as  Robinson  Cru- 
soe's goats." 

On  closer  acquaintance  they  were  found  to  be  as 
totally  depraved  in  character  and  utterly  lawless  and 
monstrous  in  conduct  as  the  other  races  of  the  Pacific. 
' '  In  theft,  in  licentiousness,  in  guile,  they  were  unrival- 
led. They  knew  no  mercy,  and  their  selfishness  was  un- 
mixed." 

They  could  hardly  be  said  to  have  the  rudest  systems 
of  civil  government.  They  had  a  sort  of  democracy  of 
liberty,  or  license,  without  law.  When  once  a  mission- 


224  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

ary  inquired  who  was  their  king  the  reply  was,  "You 
are  king ;  I  am  king  ;  we  are  all  kings."  "The  conse- 
quence was  that  every  man  was  his  own  protector  and 
avenger,  that  feuds,  robberies,  wars  and  bloodshed  were 
incessant,  and  that  the  people  of  every  valley  were  ac- 
customed to  kill  those  of  the  neighboring  valley  at  sight." 

As  in  all  pagan  communities,  the  condition  of  the 
women  was  most  degraded,  wretched  and  pitiful.  By 
their  tabu  system  they  were  debarred  many  privileges  : 
forbidden  to  eat  with  the  men,  to  eat  many  kinds  of 
food,  to  enter  houses  of  idol-worship  or  to  enter  or  sail 
upon  canoes.  Says  H.  Melville,  "  Canoes  were  forbidden 
to  the  women  ;  hence  when  a  woman  goes  to  a  ship  she 
puts  in  requisition  the  paddles  of  her  own  fair  body. " 
When  a  woman  would  visit  friends  in  another  valley, 
that  was  inaccessible  by  land,  "  she  would  swim  around 
bluffs  and  along  the  rugged  shores  until  she  reached  some 
point  or  crag  where  she  could  hold  on  and  rest,  pursu- 
ing her  way  endangered  by  sharks  and  by  the  surf  until 
she  reached  her  port  or  perished  in  the  attempt."  The 
women  were  also  cruelly  abused,  beaten,  and  otherwise 
maltreated,  by  their  husbands.  Yet  they  desired  to 
have  five  or  six  husbands  apiece.  When  reasoned  with 
about  this  they  would  ask,  "Who  will  prepare  our  food 
if  we  have  only  one  husband  ?"  The  first  husband,  they 
would  say,  was  a  chief,  and  should  not  work  ;  and  it  was 
not  proper  for  the  second  husband  to  work,  and  there- 
fore they  should  have  several  husbands. 

Worse  than  this  lawlessness  and  immorality  was  their 
cannibalism,  in  which  they  were  only  surpassed,  if  in- 


THE  MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  225 

deed  they  were  surpassed,  by  the  natives  of  Fiji  and  the 
New  Hebrides.  Besides  devouring  the  bodies  of  their 
enemies  that  were  killed  in  battle  they  made  special  ex- 
peditions to  obtain  victims  for  their  feasts.  Some- 
times a  company  would  go  at  night  in  a  canoe  to  a 
distant  bay,  and  there  land,  and  stealthily  surround  a 
house,  and  at  a  given  signal  kill  every  one  within,  and 
then  hurry  away  with  the  dead  bodies  to  their  port  and 
there  have  a  cannibal  feast.  The  people  of  the  distant 
bay  would  do  a  similar  act  in  retaliation  and  thus  a 
savage  war  would  be  occasioned. 

The  primitive  character  of  this  people  was  only  made 
worse  by  their  acquaintance  with  civilized  races.  The 
first  discoverer  of  their  group,  Alvaro  Mendana,  brutally 
fired  volleys  of  shot  among  them,  as  they  gathered  in 
crowds  on  the  beach,  because  they  had  committed  some 
petty  thefts.  Capt.  Cook,  during  his  visit  herein  1774, 
shot  and  killed  one  of  them  for  a  trivial  offense.  The 
historians  of  his  vessels  narrate  that  the  Marquesan  wo- 
men at  that  time  repelled  the  lustful  advances  of  his 
seamen,  but  in  after  times  they  were  lured  on  by  the 
temptation  of  presents  to  throng  every  ship  that  came 
to  their  ports,  so  that  "their  islands  became  like  huge 
brothels."  In  1813  Capt.  Porter,  of  the  U.  S.  frigate  Essex, 
attacked  the  natives  of  Typee,  Nukuhiva,  burned  their 
villages  and  killed  many  of  the  people,  to  punish  them 
for  some  misdeeds  ;  but  his  marines  were  decoyed  far 
up  the  valley  and  finally  the  natives  suddenly  ran  up  the 
steep  ridges  and  rolled  rocks  upon  them,  and  compelled 
them  to  retreat.  In  1842  France  sent  four  frigates  and 


226  THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

three  corvettes  under  the  command  of  Admiral  Dupetit- 
Thouars  to  take  possession  of  this  group.  They  suddenly 
appeared  at  Taiohae,  Nukuhiva,  and  gained  the  favor  of 
the  natives  by  promising  to  make  their  leading  man, 
Mowana  (a  son  of  Hape),  ruler  of  the  whole  group. 
But  the  natives  soon  found  that  the  French  meant  only 
to  appropriate  the  islands  to  themselves,  and  fiercely  re- 
sisted them.  A  desperate  battle  was  fought  in  which 
150  natives  were  killed.  The  natives  were  obliged  to 
succumb  to  the  superior  military  power  of  the  French 
and  allow  them  to  build  fortifications  and  maintain  a 
garrison  at  Taiohae.  The  consequences  of  these  and 
other  outrages  committed  by  sea-faring  men  have  been 
that  the  natives  have  become  extremely  violent,  fierce 
and  treacherous  in  their  conduct  towards  white  men, 
and  the  history  of  the  visits  here  of  ships  has  general- 
ly been  a  history  not  only  of  brutal  immorality  but  also 
of  murders,  committed  either  by  the  natives  or  by  the 
white  men,  or  both. 

The  treachery  of  the  natives  was  once  displayed  in 
an  amusing  way  in  an  attempt  to  capture  the  brig 
Betsy,  Capt.  Fanning.  After  remaining  several  days  in 
Taiohae  Bay  this  captain  raised  his  anchor  and  spread 
his  sails,  when  he  observed  that  his  vessel  made  no 
progress,  but  rather  was  approaching  the  shore.  Taking 
a  spyglass  and  examining  a  crowd  of  savages  on  the 
beach  he  discovered  that  they  were  pulling  away  at  a 
rope  and  that  the  rope  was  attached  under  water  to  his 
vessel.  He  cut  this  rope  just  in  time  to  save  his  vessel 
and  himself  and  crew  from  destruction. 


m 


a 


" 


•S  5 


THE  MARQUESAS  ISLANDS.  22Q 

Missionary  work  was  commenced  on  these  islands 
about  as  early  as  anywhere  in  the  Pacific.  When,  in 
1797,  Capt  Wilson  of  the  Duff  brought  the  first  mission- 
ary company  to  the  South  Seas  he  landed  two  of  them, 
Messrs.  Harris  and  Crook,  on  June  5,  1797,  at  Vaitohu 
on  the  island  of  Tahuata  (Christiana). 

The  chief,  Tenai,  welcomed  them,  and  gave  them 
each  a  house.  The  native  women  flocked  around  them 
and,  being  astonished  that  they  were  repelled,  dealt  so 
roughly  with  Mr.  Harris  in  the  night  that  the  next  morn- 
ing he  returned  to  the  ship,  protesting  that  he  would  not 
reside  among  such  a  people. 

' '  His  partner,  Mr.  Crook,  remained  alone  on  Tahua- 
ta eight  months.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  May  22,  1798, 
Capt.  Fanning  of  the  brig  Betsy  arrived  off  the  island ; 
and  several  canoes  went  to  hail  him  and  pressed  him  to 
anchor,  which  he  was  unwilling  to  do,  being  ignorant 
of  the  harbors.  A  heavy  shower  of  rain  coming  on,  the 
vessel  was  deserted  in  a  moment  by  the  visitors,  when  a 
small  canoe  darted  out  to  meet  it,  manned  by  only  two 
persons.  As  it  drew  near,  it  was  with  profound  aston- 
ishment that  the  captain  heard  a  man,  dressed  in  Mar- 
quesan  style  and  nearly  as  dark  as  the  natives,  call  out, 
'  Sir,  I  am  an  Englishman,  and  I  have  come  to  you  to 
save  my  life/  This  was  the  Rev.  Wm.  Pascoe  Crook. 
No  sooner  had  he  reached  the  deck  than,  yielding  to  his 
emotion,  he  kneeled  down  and  thanked  God  for  his  de- 
liverance. Then  he  stated  that  he  was  a  missionary,  and 
that  the  disposition  of  the  natives  towards  him  had  been 
most  alarming.  Twice  he  had  owed  his  life  to  the  pro- 


230  THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

tection  of  the  chief  who  accompanied  him  on  board  ; 
and  had  it  not  been  for  him  he  would  long  before  have 
been  killed  and  eaten.  His  chief  persecutor  had  been 
a  runaway  sailor,  an  Italian,  who  deserted  a  merchant- 
man soon  after  the  departure  of  the  Duff  and  by  the  use 
of  a  gun  gained  great  power  over  the  natives.  This  man 
had  sought  to  murder  Mr.  Crook,  as  being  an  obstacle  to 
his  influence,  and  now  proposed  to  capture  the  Betsy  in 
order  to  renew  his  stock  of  ammunition.  Mr.  Crook's 
movements  had  been  watched  ;  and  it  was  only  under 
cover  of  the  rainstorm  that  he  had  been  able  to  hail  the 
Betsy  and  warn  her  captain.  Liberal  presents  were 
made  to  the  chief,  who  had  brought  off  Mr.  Crook  at 
the  risk  of  his  life.  The  parting  between  the  two  friends 
was  very  touching. 

"Three  days  later  the  Betsy  arrived  at  Taiohae  Bay 
in  Nukuhiva,  and  here  Mr.  Crook  found  the  natives  so 
friendly  that  he  left  the  ship  and  took  up  his  residence 
among  them.  But  again  he  was  obliged  to  flee  for  his 
life  to  a  passing  ship,  and  returned  to  Tahiti. 

"  For  twenty-seven  years  now  these  islands  remained 
without  missionaries.  In  January,  1825,  Mr.  Crook 
went  thither  in  the  Lynx,  Capt.  Sibrill  (son-in-law  of 
the  missionary  Henry,  of  Tahiti),  with  two  native  teach- 
ers from  Huahine,  and  was  joyfully  welcomed  by  the 
natives  of  Tahuata.  The  women  recited  a  ballad  in  his 
honor  as  the  adopted  son  of  the  late  chief  Tenai.  He 
left  the  two  teachers  at  Hanatete,  on  the  east  side  of  the 
island,  but  at  the  end  of  two  months  they  fled  to  Ta- 
hiti. 


THE   MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  231 

"Again,  in  October,  1828,  four  teachers  were  con- 
veyed by  the  same  Capt.  Sibrill  in  the  ship  Minerva  to 
these  islands.  Two  of  them  landed  at  Tahuata,  but 
soon  after  fled  from  the  island  just  as  the  natives  were 
about  to  sacrifice  them  to  their  gods.  The  other  two 
settled  at  Uapoa  but  were  expelled  by  the  natives,  who 
declared  them  hypocrites,  and  that  their  lives  did  not 
accord  with  their  teachings. 

"In  1829  Messrs.  Pritchard  and  Simpson,  of  the 
Tahiti  Mission,  went  to  renew  their  mission  work  on 
these  islands,  but  'did  not  like  the  looks  of  things/  and 
returned  to  Tahiti. "  (Maile  Wreath. ) 

Not  long  after  this  Rev.  Charles  Stewart,  who  had 
been  seamen's  chaplain  at  Lahaina,  Hawaiian  Islands, 
visited  Nukuhiva  while  chaplain  of  the  United  States 
war-ship  Vincennes,  and  afterwards  urged  the  American 
Board  to  undertake  mission  work  in  these  islands.  In 
compliance  with  his  suggestions  Rev.  Messrs.  R.  Arm- 
strong, B.  F.  Parker  and  W.  P.  Alexander  were  sent 
thither  in  1833.  The  detailed  narratives  of  these  mis- 
sionaries give  vivid  pictures  of  the  people,  and  well  por- 
tray the  condition  of  missionaries  laboring  among  a  sav- 
age race. 

On  the  loth  of  August,  1833,  they  arrived  at  Taio- 
hae,  Nukuhiva.  ' '  As  soon  as  we  arrived, "  says  Mrs. 
Armstrong,  ' '  the  natives  came  off  in  great  numbers,  the 
women  swimming  and  holding  by  one  hand  their  white 
tapas,  their  only  garment,  out  of  the  water.  The  deck 
was  soon  crowded  with  men,  women  and  children,  most 
of  them  entirely  naked,  a  few  having  only  a  strip  of  tapa 


232  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

around  the  waist,  all  making  a  deafening  noise.  At 
sight  of  the  women  and  children  of  the  mission  families 
they  were  greatly  excited,  jumping  on  the  deck  with  loud 
shouts  of  laughter,  and  all  the  talk  fore  and  aft  was 
'  vahine '  and  '  pikanini '  (women  and  children). " 

The  ladies  remained  bdow  in  the  cabin  until  the 
captain,  by  throwing  hard  bread  to  the  front  of  the  ves- 
sel, gathered  the  natives  forward,  and  then  put  up  a 
board  fence,  and  through  an  interpreter  informed  them 
that  the  ladies  would  come  on  deck,  and  could  be  seen, 
if  they  would  remain  at  the  fore  part  of  the  vessel.  As 
soon  as  the  ladies  had  come  on  deck  the  natives  shouted 
"Afoafa%e"'(good).  Mrs.  Alexander  had  a  babe  three 
months  old  whom  the  women  admired  and  begged  for. 
Swimming  beside  the  ship  they  showed  how  they  could 
hold  him  out  of  water,  and  proposed  to  make  him  their 
king.  Most  probably  they  would  have  put  him  into  one 
of  their  baking-ovens. 

At  evening  the  captain  persuaded  the  natives  to  go 
ashore,  with  the  promise  that  the  next  day  the  mission- 
aries would  land.  Some  of  the  wild  men  immediately 
proposed  to  exchange  wives  with  the  missionaries.  "  As 
we  gazed  at  the  island,"  says  Mrs.  Armstrong,  "it  baf- 
fled comprehension  that  beings  so  vile  should  be  placed 
in  scenes  so  beautiful. " 

On  the  1 2th  of  August  the  missionaries  went  on 
shore  and  visited  Hape,  the  chief.  He  was  sick,  but 
was  pleased  to  see  them,  and  said  he  would  give  them 
the  house  he  was  then  occupying.  The  savages  every- 
where followed  them  shouting,  the  women  sometimes 


THE   MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  233 

coming  close  and  lifting  the  bonnets  of  the  ladies  for  a 
fuller  view,  and  exclaiming  "  Moatake!" 

On  the  1 5th  of  August  they  all  took  up  their  abode 
in  a  house  near  the  shore,  furnished  by  Hape;  It  was 
fifty  feet  long,  open  all  the  length  on  one  side  to  four 
feet  above  the  ground,  and  thatched  with  breadfruit 
leaves  shingled  over  each  other.  The  floor  was  paved 
with  smooth  round  stones.  They  closed  the  open  side 
of  the  house  with  boards,  made  doors  four  feet  high, 
formed  windows  by  cutting  away  part  of  the  breadfruit 
leaves  from  the  bamboo  framework,  and  partitioned  the 
house  by  calico  and  sheeting  into  four  rooms ;  one  of 
these  rooms  at  the  end  was  used  for  a  store-room,  the 
next  was  occupied  by  Mr.  Parker's  family,  the  next  by 
Mr.  Alexander's,  and  the  next,  near  the  beach  and  almost 
in  the  roaring  surf,  by  Mr.  Armstrong's  family.  At  first 
the  doors  and  windows  were  crowded  almost  to  suffoca- 
tion  by  the  savages  gazing  at  them.  Their  cooking  was 
done  outside,  under  a  spreading  breadfruit  tree,  by  pla- 
cing kettles  on  stones  over  the  fire.  It  was  the  rainy 
season,  so  that  out-door  cooking  was  difficult.  Some- 
times the  natives  would  take  the  food  out  of  the  kettles 
by  hooks  and  carry  it  away. 

The  first  work  of  the  missionaries  was  to  build  com- 
fortable homes.  The  natives  were  hired  by  knives  and 
fish-hooks  to  bring  timber  of  breadfruit  and  cocoanut 
trees,  and  breadfruit  leaves  ;  but  they  were  very  tantaliz- 
ing by  their  indolence.  At  length  three  houses  were 
completed,  placed  so  near  together  that  the  missionaries 
could  call  from  one  to  the  other.  They  were  often 


234  THE    ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

made  to  tremble  at  night,  when  the  savages  would  pass 
close  by  with  flaming  torches  on  their  way  from  fishing. 
One  touch  of  their  torches  would  have  set  the  houses  all 
a-blaze. 

The  missionaries  were  much  troubled  by  the  thievish 
propensities  of  the  natives  ;  and  for  this  reason  set  apart 
a  special  room  in  each  house  for  receiving  their  visits. 
The  natives  would  often  thrust  bamboo  sticks  with  hooks 
through  their  lattice  windows  to  take  whatever  they 
could  reach  ;  and  the  missionaries  often  awoke  at  night 
to  find  them,  with  their  poles  thrust  through  the  win- 
dows, taking  clothing  or  anything  they  could  get,  or 
pulling  up  the  thatch  to  take  whatever  they  could  reach; 
sometimes  not  one  native  only,  but  a  gang  of  thieves 
stealing  at  the  same  time  at  different  parts  of  the  house. 
"It  was  most  annoying,"  says  Mrs.  Alexander,  "to  see 
their  black  faces  peering  through  the  windows,  and 
through  openings  they  tore  through  the  thatch.  I  dared 
not  look  at  them  ;  for  I  was  sure  to  see  a  look  that 
would  fill  me  with  disgust  and  horror. " 

The  missionaries  went  out  every  day  among  them 
with  pencil  and  paper  to  learn  words,  and  afterwards 
compared  notes,  and  as  they  roamed  about  were  de- 
lighted with  the  rich  and  beautiful  scenery.  The  groves 
of  breadfruit,  cocoanut,  and  papaia,  and  a  great  variety 
of  thick  vines  and  shrubbery,  formed  one  almost  un- 
broken shade.  At  almost  every  house  they  were  hospi- 
tably received,  and  invited  to  eat  breadfruit  poi. 

On  the  fifth  Sabbath  after  their  arrival  Mr.  Alexander 
preached  the  first  sermon,  telling  the  natives  of  the  van- 


ROYAL  PALMS  AT  HONOLULU. 


OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY 
PA 


THE   MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  237 

ity  of  their  gods,  and  of  the  true  God.  The  big  bread- 
fruit tree  that  had  been  used  as  a  cook-house  was  now 
used  as  a  church.  The  ladies  sat  under  its  shade  on 
chairs,  while  the  natives  rushed  around  in  noisy  confu- 
sion. The  preaching  was  no  easy  task,  for  the  natives 
would  smoke  and  talk  and  mimic ;  some  would  lie  and 
sleep,  some  laugh  and  talk,  some  mock  and  excite 
laughter  ;  here  one  would  sit  smoking  a  pipe,  there  one 
twisting  a  rope ;  often  there  was  such  confusion  that  the 
preacher  could  hardly  hear  himself  speak,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  the  half  of  those  present  would  arise  and  go  off 
laughing  and  mocking.  They  were  ready  to  gnash  on 
the  preacher  with  their  teeth  when  told  that  their  gods 
were  false,  and  would  often  say  ' '  Tivava "  (it  is  a  lie). 
"Your  God  is  good  for  you,"  they  would  say,  "ours 
are  good  for  us."  When  the  preacher  shut  his  eyes  they 
asked,  "Is  your  God  blind,  that  you  shut  your  eyes?" 
When  an  axe  had  been  stolen  they  said,  ' '  You  tell  us 
your  God  is  great  and  good,  let  him  find  the  thief,  if  he  is 
so  great."  One  preacher,  when  describing  heaven,  was 
interrupted  by  the  remark,  ' '  That  will  be  a  good  place 
for  cowards  and  lazy  folks,  who  are  afraid  to  fight  and 
too  lazy  to  climb  breadfruit  and  cocoanut  trees. " 

Afterwards  the  missionaries  preached  by  rotation 
every  Sabbath,  and  after  the  8th  of  December  twice. 
They  also  preached  in  English  to  the  few  foreigners  on 
the  island.  After  four  months'  residence  they  were  able 
to  translate  into  Marquesan  four  hymns,  which  much 
pleased  the  natives  and  enlisted  their  attention.  The 
last  three  months  of  their  stay  they  were  able  to  pray 


•• 


\B* ' 


OT    Tfl' 


SlT^" 


238  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

extempore  in  Marquesan.  Generally  only  twenty  natives 
attended  their  meetings.  Once  one  hundred  and  fifty 
attended.  Mrs.  Armstrong  and  the  other  ladies  con- 
ducted a  school  for  the  children  ;  but  only  a  few  attend- 
ed, and  that  very  irregularly  ;  and  not  more  than  half  a 
dozen  learned  the  alphabet. 

Mr.  Alexander  and  Mr.  Parker  once  undertook  to 
explore  the  valley  of  Typee,  with  a  view  to  make  a  mis- 
sion station  there.  With  much  difficulty  they  found  a 
man  who  was  a  sort  of  neutral,  that  is,  one  permitted 
to  go  unharmed  from  one  valley  to  another.  Immedi- 
ately on  arriving  at  the  valley  of  Typee  they  were  sur- 
rounded by  a  multitude  of  the  savages  vociferating 
fiercely.  Seeing  the  white  missionaries  the  natives 
called  to  mind  how,  in  1813,  Capt.  Porter  of  the  United 
States  ship  Essex  had  attacked  them,  and  one  of  them 
exclaimed,  ''Porter  killed  my  father."  Another  said, 
"Porter  killed  my  brother."  Another,  clapping  his 
hand  on  his  shoulder,  said,  ' '  Porter  shot  me  here. " 
The  missionaries  were  expecting  to  be  killed,  when  their 
guide  said  to  the  natives,  "These  men  are  not  like 
Porter.  He  came  to  fight  ;  but  these  men  have  come 
to  teach  us  not  to  fight."  He  then  repeated  very  cor- 
rectly the  sermons  which  the  missionaries  had  preached. 
The  natives  then  shouted  "Moatake,"  and  conducted 
them  to  a  house,  where  they  spent  the  night,  fearing 
that  they  would  be  clubbed  before  morning.  But  they 
were  not  disturbed,  and  the  next  morning  were  allowed 
to  return  home  ;  which  they  did,  by  the  advice  of  their 
guide,  by  a  different  route  from  that  of  the  previous  day. 


THE    MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  239 

During  their  absence  their  wives  suffered  much  from 
fear  of  the  natives.  Says  Mrs.  Parker,  ' '  Mrs.  Alexander 
proposed  that  I  should  come  to  her  room  and  sleep  with 
her,  to  beguile  loneliness  and  share  anxiety.  About 
midnight  we  were  startled  by  terrible  savage  yells,  and 
the  sounds  came  nearer  and  nearer.  Whatever  it  might 
be  it  was  headed  in  the  direction  of  our  homes.  Our 
first  anxiety  was  lest  Mrs.  Alexander's  babe  should 
awake  frightened,  and  attract  the  attention  of  the  sav- 
ages. Mrs.  Alexander  said  to  me,  'Our  only  refuge 
now  is  our  God  ;  we  will  pray. '  The  child  slept  on 
between  us;  the  sounds  were  deeper  and  nearer  for 
a  short  period,  and  then  grew  fainter ;  the  crowd 
passed  the  house  and  went  on  in  another  direction,  and 
we  went  to  sleep  undisturbed,  under  divine  protection. 
In  the  morning  we  found  that  it  was  a  religious  proces- 
sion that  had  passed  by.  A  shark  had  been  taken  by 
the  fishermen  ;  and  this  was  a  god,  to  be  worshipped  in 
the  only  way  they  knew. " 

The  hostility  between  the  different  valleys  made  the 
situation  of  these  missionaries  very  insecure.  They 
were  several  times  informed  that  the  Typees  were  com- 
ing in  the  night  to  kill  them,  and  to  take  their  property. 
But  their  most  serious  danger  was  from  the  foreigners, 
civilized  men  turned  savage,  who  resided  among  the 
natives  and  were  more  dangerous  than  the  natives. 
Such  a  man  was  a  convict  from  New  Zealand,  known 
by  the  name  of  Morrison,  of  whom  mention  has  been 
made.  One  night  the  missionaries  were  hastily  sent  for 
because  he  had  suddenly  become  ill.  The  day  previous 


240  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

a  great  school  of  porpoises  had  come  into  the  bay,  and 
the  natives  had  caught  them  in  such  quantities  that  their 
bodies  were  piled  up  on  the  shore  ;  and  for  many  days, 
even  after  putrefaction  had  begun,  every  one  helped 
himself  to  their  flesh  as  he  pleased.  This  man  gave  his 
appetite  full  rein,  and  the  consequence  was  that  he 
had  an  attack  of  apoplexy  and  died  at  eleven  o'clock  at 
night.  The  natives  now  informed  the  missionaries  that 
he  had  planned  to  fire  their  houses  and  murder  them  all, 
in  order  to  obtain  their  few  articles  of  property.  Their 
hearts  overflowed  with  gratitude  to  God  for  this  provi- 
dential deliverance.  They  however  determined  to  give 
the  body  a  burial  in  Christian  style,  the  first  such  burial 
on  the  island.  They  made  a  coffin  out  of  their  boxes, 
dug  a  grave,  and  with  prayer  lowered  the  body  into  it. 
A  native  then  threw  in  a  baked  hog.  Mr.  Armstrong 
threw  it  out,  and  it  was  again  thrown  in,  and  again 
thrown  out.  The  native  then  said,  "The  soul  of  that 
man  will  come  to  me  in  the  night  and  will  say,  '  You 
are  stingy.  I  am  hungry. '  "  It  was  supposed  that  he 
afterwards  dug  into  the  grave  and  buried  the  pig  along- 
side of  the  corpse. 

The  chief,  Hape,  at  length  became  quite  unfriendly, 
for  he  was  disappointed  that  the  missionaries  did  not 
cure  him  of  his  illness  and  did  not  give  him  more  pres- 
ents, for  which  he  daily  begged,  and  he  urged  the  natives 
not  to  attend  the  meetings. 

On  the  fourth  of  December,  1833,  he  died.  "The 
hills  then  echoed  with  wailing,  the  thumping  of  drums 
and  the  blowing  of  conch  shells."  The  body  was  hung 


THE   MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  241 

high  in  a  canoe  over  the  heiau  (rock  platform  for  wor- 
ship) and  the  first  wife  was  obliged  to  remain  continually 
in  care  of  it,  to  provide  food  for  the  spirit,  until  the 
body  had  so  far  decayed  that  the  bones  could  be  picked 
out,  which  it  was  the  privilege  of  the  wife  or  the  nearest 
relative  to  do.  Mr.  Alexander  has  given  a  description 
of  the  scenes  he  then  witnessed.  "The  funeral  rites," 
he  says,  "beggared  description  for  obscenity,  noise, 
cruelty,  and  beastly  exposure.  They  lasted  seven  days, 
and  were  the  darkest  days  I  ever  saw.  Companies  came 
from  all  parts,  filling  the  air  with  loud  wailings,  dancing 
in  a  state  of  perfect  nudity  around  the  corpse  like  so 
many  furies,  cutting  their  flesh  with  shells  and  sharp 
stones  till  the  blood  trickled  down  to  their  feet,  the  wo- 
men tearing  out  their  hair,  both  men  and  women  knock- 
ing out  their  teeth,  indulging  in  the  most  revolting 
licentiousness,  and  feasting  to  excess,  while  muskets  were 
fired  and  sea-shells  were  kept  a-blowing  with  a  long  deep 
sepulchral  sound  during  the  whole  night.  Verily  I 
seemed  to  be  for  the  time  on  the  borders  of  the  infernal 
regions."  Mrs.  Parker  mentions  that  "Hape  soon 
became  a  nuisance  except  when  the  wind  favored  us, 
blowing  in  another  direction." 

After  the  missionaries  had  resided  eight  months 
on  this  island  they  were  visited  by  Mr.  Orsmond,  a 
missionary  from  Tahiti,  who  had  been  making  a  mis- 
sionary tour  looking  after  native  missionaries  in  the 
Paumotu  group.  He  informed  them  that  the  London 
Society  had  sent  six  missionaries  for  the  Marquesas  Isl- 
ands, that  they  had  already  sailed  and  would  occupy  the 
ii 


242  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE  PACIFIC. 

southern  part  of  the  group,  and  that  it  would  be  much 
easier  for  their  mission  to  send  supplies  to  missionaries 
here  than  it  would  be  for  the  Hawaiian  Mission  ;  since 
they,  the  English  missionaries,  had  a  mission  packet  that 
made  regular  trips  to  their  out  stations  and  the  American 
missionaries  had  none.  It  was  very  plain  that  he  desired 
the  field  to  be  given  up  to  the  London  Missionary  So- 
ciety. The  American  missionaries  spent  a  day  in  fast- 
ing and  praying  over  the  matter,  and  decided  that  it 
would  be  a  wasteful  expenditure  for  two  distinct  so- 
cieties each  to  employ  a  vessel  annually  to  visit  their 
missionaries  in  so  small  a  field,  and  as  the  London  So- 
ciety were  unwilling  to  surrender  the  whole  field  they 
determined  to  leave  it  to  them.  Mrs.  Alexander  has  re- 
marked, ' '  It  was  very  trying  to  us  to  leave,  although 
we  knew  that  missionaries  were  on  their  way  to  take  our 
place.  The  people  were  in  gross  darkness,  and  I,  for 
one,  was  willing  to  spend  my  life  among  them. " 

About  this  time  some  of  the  natives  (Tais)  among 
whom  these  missionaries  were  residing  went  in  the  night 
to  the  bay  of  the  Taipis  and  killed  two  or  three  of  them 
and  offered  them  in  sacrifice.  The  Taipis  now  threatened 
to  invade  the  valley  of  the  Tais  and  exterminate  the 
missionaries. 

While  the  missionaries  were  expecting  their  attack  two 
whale-ships  came  to  the  island  for  supplies  and  the  mis- 
sionaries engaged  passage  on  one  of  them,  the  Benjamin 
Rush,  Capt.  Coffin,  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  They 
now  had  to  contrive  to  get  aboard  the  ship  without  the 
oposition  of  the  natives.  They  secretly  packed  their 


THE   MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  243 

goods,  darkening  their  windows  lest  they  should  be  ob- 
served;  and  then  the  ladies  with  their  infants,  two  of 
whom  had  been  born  during  their  stay  on  the  island, 
suddenly  went  to  the  boat  with  a  file  of  sailors  on  each 
side.  They  were  quickly  surrounded  by  a  great  multi- 
tude of  the  savages,  armed  with  spears  and  clubs,  but 
they  conciliated  them  by  presents,  and  thereby  succeed- 
ed in  getting  away  from  the  shore.  Their  husbands 
came  afterwards  with  the  baggage. 

' '  Oh  what  a  sense  of  relief  we  felt, "  says  Mrs.  Arm- 
strong, "  when  we  were  all  on  board  !  It  was  a  critical  mo- 
ment, for  the  natives  were  like  friction-matches,  ready  to 
explode  on  the  slightest  provocation  ;  and  when  (on  the 
1 6th  April,  1834)  the  sails  were  spread,  and  the  shores 
of  Nukuhiva  receded  from  view,  we  gave  thanks  to  God 
that  during  a  residence  there  of  over  eight  months  he 
had  saved  us  from  the  fury  of  that  heathen  race. " 

In  October,  1834,  the  English  missionaries,  Mr. 
Rodgerson  and  his  wife  and  Mr.  Stallworthy,  with  four 
Tahitian  teachers,  arrived  at  the  Marquesas  Islands,  and 
landed  on  Tahuata  at  Hanatete.  After  three  years  of 
labor  and  suffering  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rodgerson  abandoned 
the  field,  "being  convinced  that  the  islands  were  unfit 
to  be  the  residence  of  civilized  females."  Their  books, 
furniture  and  clothing  had  been  stolen  piecemeal,  their 
house  once  set  on  fire,  and  at  times  they  had  to  go  to 
other  valleys  to  get  breadfruit  for  food.  During  their 
residence  two  persons  were  killed  and  eaten  near  their 
houses. 

Mr.  Stallworthy  remained  until   1841,   a  butt,  as  a 


244  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

French  writer  says,  for  the  ridicule  of  the  Tahuatans. 
"What  will  we  get,"  they  would  say,  "for  hearing  your 
lessons?  You  seem  to  wish  to  make  speeches  to  us. 
Well,  give  us  powder  ;  we  will  hear  you  afterwards. " 

In  1839  another  missionary,  Mr.  R.  Thompson, 
arrived  ;  but  in  1841  they  all  abandoned  the  field  and 
returned  to  Tahiti,  not  having  achieved  any  success. 

Twelve  years  after  this  a  great  interest  for  the  Mar- 
quesas Islands  was  awakened  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands  by 
an  appeal  of  a  Marquesan  chief,  Matunui,  for  missiona- 
ries. This  chief  came  with  his  son-in-law,  a  Hawaiian, 
from  Fatuhiva  to  Lahaina,  Maui,  and  announced  that  he 
had  come  thousands  of  miles  to  procure  teachers  to  in- 
struct himself  and  his  people  in  the  Word  of  God,  and 
pitifully  told  how  there  was  nothing  but  war,  fear  and 
poverty  among  his  people,  and  how  he  desired  that  his 
people  might  become  like  the  Hawaiians.  It  was  after- 
wards suspected  that  he  was  insincere  in  this  appeal,  and 
that  he  made  it  from  fear,  as  an  excuse  for  coming  to 
Hawaii.  But  the  Hawaiian  churches  were  thereby  greatly 
moved,  made  large  contributions,  chartered  a  vessel, 
and  sent  two  ordained  Hawaiian  ministers,  Rev.  James 
Kekela  and  Rev.  Samuel  Kauwealoha,  and  two  deacons, 
with  their  wives,  under  the  supervision  of  Rev.  B.  F. 
Parker,  to  Fatuhiva,  where  they  arrived  August  26,  1853. 

Five  days  after  their  arrival  a  French  brig,  which  had 
been  hastily  despatched  from  Tahiti  to  counteract  their 
mission,  came  to  Futuhiva  and  landed  a  Roman-catholic 
priest,  who  informed  Matunui  that  the  Marquesas  Isl- 
ands belonged  to  France,  and  demanded  that  he  should 


THE   MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  245 

send  away  the  Protestants.  Matunui  replied  that  no 
Frenchmen  had  ever  been  born  on  his  island  and  that 
the  island  belonged  to  him,  and  refused  to  expel  the 
Hawaiian  missionaries.  The  priest  remained,  opposing 
the  work  of  the  Hawaiians  many  years  ;  and  finally  other 
priests  were  located  on  the  other  islands. 

Only  brief  records  of  the  work  of  these  missionaries 
can  be  gleaned  from  their  letters  and  reports  of  the  dele- 
gates of  the  Hawaiian  Mission,  Rev.  T.  Coan,  who  vis- 
ited them  in  1860  and  1867,  and  Rev.  W.  P.  Alexander, 
who  visited  them  in  1871.  The  missionaries  labored  to- 
gether a  while  at  Omoa  on  Fatuhiva,  and  finally  separated 
to  different  islands,  Rev.  J.  W.  Kaivi,  who  had  subse- 
quently arrived  with  several  other  Hawaiians,  and  with 
Rev.  J.  Bicknell,  son  of  a  missionary  at  Tahiti,  remain- 
ing at  Omoa.  Kaivi,  after  nineteen  years  of  labor,  in 
which  he  had  conducted  a  small  school  and  organized  a 
small  church,  became  deranged,  and  was  removed  to 
Hawaii.  He  had  faced  enough  perils  and  endured 
enough  trials  to  render  him  insane.  Mr.  Coan  tells  how 
the  cannibals  of  his  valley  were  continually  at  war  with 
the  people  of  the  valley  of  Hanaveve,  five  miles  distant, 
and  how  once  "a  robber  came  at  night  within  ten  yards 
of  his  house  to  kill  a  woman  who  was  alone  in  her  hut. 
Kaivi  and  his  wife,  hearing  the  rustle  of  dry  fallen 
leaves,  went  out  softly  under  cover  of  shrubs  and  des- 
cried the  assassin  and  threw  stones,  when  he  ran  and  the 
woman  was  taken  into  Kaivi's  house  for  protection. 
On  another  dark  night  a  blind  woman  was  sleeping  alone 
near  by,  her  husband  having  gone  on  board  of  a  vessel, 


246  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

when  a  cannibal  with  a  long  knife  entered  the  house  to 
despatch  her ;  but  before  the  bloody  deed  was  done  a 
large  dog  seized  the  monster,  and  in  the  struggle  the 
neighbors  were  aroused  and  the  invader  fled  up  a  steep 
precipice  to  his  own  place  on  the  other  side  of  the  ridge. 
A  native  from  the  other  valley  decoyed  two  boys  up  a 
high  ridge  with  a  promise  of  berries,  and  there  in  sight  of 
all  the  people  drew  a  large  knife,  seized  one  of  the  lads 
and  severed  his  head  from  his  body.  The  other  boy  fled 
down  the  hill  and  gave  the  alarm,  but  the  assassin  went 
on  down  to  his  valley  with  the  bloody  trophy  in  his 
hand."  Finally  Kaivi's  wife  was  lured  away  by  the  hea- 
then, as  was  also  the  wife  of  the  missionary  Kaukau. 
Mr.  Coan  tells  how  he  sought  out  one  of  these  women 
and  entreated  her  to  return  to  her  husband.  He  found 
her  forlorn  and  desiring  to  return  :  but  she  feared  her 
seducers,  as  they  would  surely  kill  her  before  they  would 
let  her  go.  While  they  talked  the  young  savages  came 
in,  armed  with  sheath-knives,  and  took  seats  so  as  to 
look  her  full  in  the  face,  keeping  their  keen  eyes  fixed  on 
her.  She  dared  not  speak  again.  Mr.  Coan  left  her  with 
a  heavy  heart,  and  learned  afterwards  that  both  these 
women  died  in  misery. 

The  missionary  Kauwealoha  went  from  Fatuhiva  to 
Hivaoa,  and  there  gathered  a  school  of  sixty  pupils  and 
a  congregation  of  one  hundred  and  forty-nine ;  but  in  a 
war  of  the  savages  his  house  was  torn  down,  and  he  and 
his  wife  barely  escaped  with  their  lives.  They  then  went 
to  Uapou,  and  first  resided  at  Hakahekau  on  that  island, 
but  the  sand-flies  were  so  numerous  and  intolerable  that 


THE   MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  247 

they  removed  to  a  neighboring  valley,  Aneau.  Here 
they  formed  a  female  seminary,  of  which  Mr.  Alexander 
speaks  as  the  brightest  gleam  of  light  he  had  seen  in  the 
Marquesas.  When  once  it  was  proposed  in  Hawaii  to 
relinquish  this  mission,  because  of  its  cost  and  lack  of 
success,  Kauwealoha  wrote  back  that,  whether  aban- 
doned or  not,  he  would  continue  at  his  work,  and  that 
if  his  salary  was  discontinued  he  would  work,  if  so 
obliged,  in  the  costume,  or  undress,  of  his  fathers  in 
their  barbarous  state. 

Rev.  James  Kekela  took  his  station  at  Paumau  on 
the  island  of  Hivaoa,  where  were  immense  heiaus  and 
a  stone  idol  nine  feet  high  and  three  and  a  half  in  diame- 
ter. Mr.  Coan  relates  that  "it  was  to  this  place  of 
infernal  rites  that,  in  1864,  Mr.  Whalon,  first  officer 
of  the  American  whale-ship  Congress,  was  brought, 
bound  hand  and  foot,  to  be  devoured  by  savages. 

"A  Peruvian  vessel  had  stolen  men  from  Hivaoa, 
and  the  people  were  looking  for  an  opportunity  for 
revenge  and  seized  Mr.  Whalon  when  he  went  on  shore 
to  trade  for  pigs,  fowls,  etc. ,  stripped  him  of  his  cloth- 
ing and  took  him  to  this  heiau  to  be  cooked  and  eaten. 
The  savages  then  began  to  torment  him,  bending  his 
thumbs  and  fingers  backward,  pulling  his  nose  and 
ears,  and  brandishing  their  hatchets  and  knives  close 
to  his  head.  Kekela  was  then  absent ;  but  a  German, 
hearing  of  the  affair,  went  to  the  place  and  begged  the 
savages  to  release  their  victim.  This  with  ferocious 
grins  they  refused  to  do,  saying  that  they  relished 
human  flesh  and  they  were  now  to  feast  on  a  white 


248  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

man.  On  the  return  of  Kekela  the  following  morning 
he  hastened  thither,  and  begged  for  the  life  of  the  poor 
man.  But  the  savages  were  inexorable  unless  for  a 
ransom.  Finally,  for  a  gun  and  various  other  articles, 
Mr.  Whalon  was  released.  Kekela  took  him  to  his 
house  and,  with  his  intelligent  wife,  showed  him  the 
greatest  kindness  and  attention,  and  finally  restored 
him  to  his  ship. 

"Mr.  Lincoln  was  then  President  of  the  United 
States,  and,  hearing  of  this  deed  of  Mr.  Kekela,  sent 
out  the  value  of  $500  with  a  letter  of  congratulation, 
as  a  reward  for  the  rescue  of  an  American  citizen  from 
death  at  the  hands  of  Marquesan  cannibals. " 

On  the  same  island,  at  Hanahi,  Rev.  James  Bicknell 
was  located.  He  afterwards  removed  to  Hawaii,  and 
there  did  excellent  missionary  work. 

At  Hanatita,  on  the  north  side  of  this  island,  Rev. 
A.  Kaukau  made  his  residence,  and  at  Atuona,  on  the 
south  side,  Hapuku  was  located.  At  Mr.  Alexander's 
arrival  Hapuku's  school  came  together  ' '  dressed  in  the 
highest  style  of  Marquesan  elegance ;  their  bodies  reek- 
ing with  cocoanut  oil  and  turmeric,  their  legs  and  arms 
ornamented  with  feathers  and  bunches  of  human  beard, 
and  on  their  heads  gaudy  helmets,  plumes,  and  cockades, 
while  a  large  number  of  both  men  and  women  carried 
butcher-knives  girded  to  their  waists. "  This  school  did 
themselves  much  credit  in  reading,  writing  and  singing. 

Full  statistical  reports  of  the  churches  of  this  mission 
are  not  at  hand.  In  1870,  in  the  islands  where  the  mis- 
sionaries were  laboring,  and  where  the  population  ag- 


THE    MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  249 

gregated  2,800,  there  were  221  pupils  in  the  schools  and 
thirty-four  members  of  churches.  Now  there  are  only 
three  missionaries  in  these  islands,  and  they  report  very 
little  progress. 

This  is  a  poor  showing  for  over  sixty  years  or  mis- 
sion enterprise  in  this  group.  No  mission  field  in  the 
Pacific  has  been  more  discouraging.  It  has  been  dis- 
heartening to  labor  for  a  greatly  diminishing  population. 
Because  of  foreign  diseases  the  population  diminished 
from  50,006  in  1830  to  6,700  in  1871. 

This  has  been  quite  as  dangerous  a  people  to  labor  for 
as  any  in  the  Pacific.  By  their  situation  in  valleys, 
walled  apart  by  impassable  mountain  ridges,  they  have 
become  more  warlike  towards  each  other  than  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  other  islands.  It  has  been  shown  here  that 

"  Mountains  interposed 
Make  enemies  of  nations  who  had  else, 
Like  kindred  drops,  been  mingled  into  one." 

For  this  reason  the  people  have  been  more  indepen- 
dent in  spirit,  more  untamable,  and  more  pertinacious  in 
adherence  to  their  ancient  rites,  superstitions  and  abom- 
inable practices. 

Their  unteachable  character  has  been  made  worse  by 
the  negligent  method  in  which  the  mission  work  in  their 
behalf  has  been  conducted.  Missions  have  prospered, 
not  only  according  to  the  amount  of  work  performed, 
but  also  according  to  the  method  of  the  work.  The 
mission  work  here  was  often  intermitted,  once  for  thirty 
years,  at  another  time  for  twelve  years,  and  several  times 


250  THE  ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

for  shorter  periods.  As  a  consequence  the  gospel  came 
with  little  power  to  this  people. 

Besides,  the  native  missionaries  here  were  not  sus- 
tained, directed,  and  encouraged,  as  they  should  have 
been,  by  the  churches  at  home.  The  Polynesians,  as 
missionaries  as  well  as  in  secular  avocations,  need  over- 
sight and  supervision.  The  coming  of  delegates  in  mis- 
sion packets  from  the  home  Boards  has  caused  an  in- 
describable benefit  both  in  cheering,  instructing,  and 
inspiring  the  native  evangelists  and  in  confirming  and 
advancing  their  influence  with  the  people  for  whom  they 
have  labored.  This  group  of  islands  should  have  been 
the  field  of  the  Tahitian  churches,  from  which  vessels 
could  have  been  often  and  quickly  despatched  thither. 
But  those  churches  were  too  much  occupied  with  the 
thrilling  work  of  their  evangelists,  in  the  groups  to  the 
south  and  west,  to  properly  attend  to  this  difficult,  un- 
promising and  dangerous  field.  And  the  Hawaiian 
Mission  Board  found  the  expense  too  great,  or  thought 
it  was  too  great,  to  vigorously  push  their  enterprise 
here.  Mr.  Coan  has  remarked  in  regard  to  this  matter 
that,  "the  destruction  of  the  poor  is  their  poverty." 
And  thus  this  mission  stands  as  a  warning  to  those  con- 
ducting missions  in  the  rest  of  the  world,  that  by  poverty, 
or  a  presumption  of  poverty,  a  mission  field  may  be  so 
neglected  as  to  be  ruined. 

When  finally,  in  spite  of  difficulties,  success  began  to 
appear,  the  mission  enterprise  here  was  wrecked,  as  at 
Tahiti,  by  the  usurpation  of  the  French.  This  professed- 
ly civilized  people  not  only  set  an  example  for  vice, 


THE   MARQUESAS   ISLANDS.  251 

intemperance,  and  infidelity,  but  also  directly  required 
conformity  to  their  example  by  compelling  the  sale  of 
intoxicating  liquors  to  the  natives,  and  making  the  Sab- 
bath a  holiday  ;  and  they  forbade  the  Hawaiian  teachers 
to  use  any  language  but  the  French  in  their  schools. 

Two  or  three  Hawaiian  missionaries  still  continue  to 
'abor  in  the  pagan  night  of  these  islands,  like  Gideon's 
band,  ' '  faint,  but  pursuing, "  knowing  that  the  gospel 
can  reach  and  uplift  the  worst  of  races,  and  realizing  that 
the  divine  Presence  is  always  with  them. 


252  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE    HERVEY   ISLANDS. 

AFTER  the  influence  of  the  Tahitian  mission  had 
caused  the  wonderful  changes  that  have  been  recounted 
in  the  Austral  and  Pearl  Islands  the  missionaries  made 
direct  efforts  to  evangelize  other  groups.  It  had  early 
entered  into  their  plans  to  make  the  Society  Islands  ra- 
diating centres  for  mission  enterprises  to  the  rest  of  the 
Pacific.  In  1878  a  great  meeting  was  held  at  Tahiti  in 
which  King  Pomare  proposed  the  formation  of  a  society 
to  be  auxiliary  to  the  London  Missionary  Society,  and 
the  assembly,  to  the  number  of  3,000,  unanimously  and 
enthusiastically  voted  assent ;  and  the  society  was  duly 
organized.  A  few  months  afterwards  a  similar  society 
was  organized  in  Raiatea.  But  these  societies  continued 
inactive  until  the  arrival  of  the  boat  bringing  tidings  of 
the  overthrow  of  idolatry  in  Rurutu,  when  they  earnestly 
proposed  to  send  missionaries  to  other  islands. 

The  first  person  to  lead  off  in  this  new  movement 
was  Rev.  John  Williams  ;  who  had  remarked  that  it  did 
not  seem  to  him  to  fulfil  his  missionary  obligation 
for  him  to  quietly  labor  for  a  few  hundreds  of  people  on 
a  single  island  while  multitudes  were  in  the  darkness  of 
heathenism  on  other  islands.  With  this  view  he  took 
the  occasion  of  being  obliged  to  go  for  his  health  to 
New  South  Wales,  to  take  native  teachers  to  the  Hervey 


HEATHEN  VILLAGE  AT  AITUTAHI,  HERVEY  ISLAND. 


CHRISTIAN  VILLAGE  AT  AITUTAHI,  HERVEY  ISLAND. 


OF  THB 

UNIVERSITY 


THE   HERVEY   ISLANDS.  255 

Islands,  and  persuaded  the  captain  of  the  vessel  on 
which  he  took  passage  to  turn  a  little  from  his  course 
and  convey  them  thither. 

The  Hervey  Islands  are  fifteen  in  number,  consisting 
of  six  principal  islands  and  nine  small  coral  islets.  They 
are  situated  from  500  to  600  miles  southwest  of  Tahiti, 
between  18°  and  22°  south  latitude  and  157°  and  1630 
west  longitude.  They  are  of  three  kinds  :  i.  low  coral- 
line islands,  rising  but  a  few  feet  above  the  sea,  having 
little  vegetation  except  cocoanuts,  pandanus  and  stunted 
hibiscus,  of  which  class  are  the  islands  Hervey,  Mauke, 
and  Mitiaro  ;  2.  elevated  coral  islands,  which  average 
from  100  to  500  feet  in  height  and  are  very  fertile  and 
covered  with  luxuriant  vegetation,  of  which  class  are 
Aitutaki,  Atiu,  and  Mangaia  ;  and,  3.  one  island  of  vol- 
canic formation,  the  high  and  mountainous  Rarotonga, 
an  island  so  picturesque  and  beautiful  with  its  rocky 
peaks  and  tropical  vegetation  that  it  has  been  well  called 
' '  the  Queen  of  the  South  Seas. " 

The  inhabitants  of  these  islands,  unlike  those  of  the 
Society  group,  were  somewhat  addicted  to  cannibalism 
and  even  more  continually  engaged  in  savage  wars,  and 
in  other  respects  equally  depraved  and  barbarous.  As 
has  been  mentioned,  in  the  year  1823  Mr.  Williams  vis- 
ited Hervey  Island  and  found  that  by  frequent  and  ex- 
terminating wars  the  population  there  had  been  reduced 
to  sixty  in  number ;  six  years  afterwards  he  again  visited 
this  island  and  found  that  the  fighting  had  continued  till 
the  only  survivors  were  five  men,  three  women,  and  a 
few  children,  and  these  were  still  contending  as  to  which 


256  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

of  them  should  be  king.  The  island  Mitiaro  also  was 
almost  depopulated  by  war  and  famine. 

The  history  of  the  mission  enterprises  in  these  islands, 
as  told  by  Mr.  Williams,  from  whose  book  the  following 
accounts  are  taken,  reads  like  a  romance.  When  Mr. 
Williams  arrived  at  Aitutaki  the  natives  came  off  to  his 
vessel  like  the  escaped  inmates  of  an  insane  asylum, 
dancing,  shouting,  and  making  frantic  gestures.  Mr. 
Williams  soon  found  that  he  could  readily  converse  with 
them  in  the  Tahitian  language,  and  informed  them  of 
the  downfall  of  idolatry  in  Tahiti  and  easily  persuaded 
them  to  receive  two  teachers  to  reside  among  them. 

These  teachers,  on  landing,  were  taken  to  a  marae 
(temple)  and  presented  to  idols  and  then  robbed  of  their 
property,  and  for  many  months  afterwards  were  in  great 
privation  and  peril.  After  they  had  labored  several 
months  a  native  of  Raiatea  brought  them  a  supply  of 
school-books  and  hymn-books,  with  which  he  swam 
ashore  from  a  passing  vessel.  This  native,  on  landing, 
was  taken  to  a  marae  and  presented  to  an  idol.  Look- 
ing up  at  the  huge  image  he  struck  it,  and  asked  the 
people  why  they  did  not  burn  it,  and  advised  them  to 
listen  to  their  teachers.  They  replied  that  if  Mr.  Wil- 
liams would  return  they  would  burn  their  idols. 

The  teachers  finally  gained  an  advantage  by  the  fail- 
ure of  the  priest  to  cause  the  recovery  from  sickness  of 
the  king's  favorite  daughter,  who  died  in  spite  of  extraor- 
dinary offerings  to  the  idols.  Disappointed  and  enraged 
by  her  death,  he  ordered  that  all  the  idols  and  temples 
should  be  destroyed.  But  the  teachers  persuaded  him, 


THE   HERVEY   ISLANDS.  257 

instead  of  destroying  the  idols,  to  send  them  as  trophies 
to  Tahiti  ;  whereupon  the  whole  population,  district  by 
district,  the  chiefs  and  priests  leading  the  way,  came  and 
cast  down  their  idols  at  their  feet. 

The  natives  now  proceeded  to  erect  a  chapel  for  the 
worship  of  the  true  God,  the  teachers  instructing  them 
how  to  build  it  ;  also  how  to  make  lime  from  coral  for 
plastering  its  walls.  The  latter  process  at  first  amused 
them,  and  some  of  them  exclaimed  in  ridicule,  "Let 
hurricanes  now  blow  down  our  breadfruit  and  banana 
trees,  we  shall  never  suffer  from  lack  of  food  ;  for  these 
strangers  are  roasting  stones."  But  when  they  saw  the 
use  made  of  the  lime  in  forming  the  white  walls  of  the 
chapel  they  were  filled  with  admiration  and  moved  to 
employ  the  same  process  in  building  houses  for  them- 
selves. The  chapel  then  built  measured  300  feet  by  30. 
Its  roof  was  completed  in  two  days,  and  the  whole  build- 
ing soon  after. 

Mr.  Williams  again  visited  Aitutaki  eighteen  months 
afterwards,  accompanied  by  a  brother  missionary,  Mr. 
Bourne,  and  by  a  number  of  native  teachers  for  new 
mission  work  on  other  islands.  On  arriving  at  this  isl- 
and, where  not  long  before  he  had  seen  wild  savages,  he 
was  surprised  and  delighted  to  be  greeted  by  the  excla- 
mations, "Good  is  the  Word  of  God.  It  is  now  well 
with  Aitutaki.  The  good  Word  has  taken  root  at  Aitu- 
taki." And  his  wonder  and  delight  grew  as  he  saw  the 
large  chapel  and  the  collections  of  discarded  idols.  In 
passing  through  the  village  he  saw  two  idols  in  use  as 
posts  to  support  the  roof  of  a  kitchen,  and  bought  them 


THE   ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

with  two  fish-hooks.  The  owner  gave  them  a  kick  as  he 
parted  with  them,  saying,  "Your  reign  is  now  over." 
Mr.  Williams  preached  in  a  chapel  to  a  congregation  of 
2,000  people  from  the  words  of  John  3:16. 

It  is  delightful  to  imagine  what  must  have  been  the 
effect  on  those  islanders  of  the  truths  proclaimed  in  that 
discourse  as  well  as  in  the  instructions  of  the  native 
teachers.  A  little  information  from  the  outside  world 
had  occasionally  been  brought  to  them  by  natives  in 
canoes  driven  by  storms  from  other  islands,  and  much 
more  by  Capt.  Cook  and  other  navigators  ;  but  never 
had  such  a  light  dawned  on  them  as  came  in  that  mes- 
sage of  God's  love.  ' '  The  people  that  sat  in  darkness 
saw  great  light,  and  to  them  in  the  region  and  shadow 
of  death  light  sprang  up. " 

Taking  now  on  board  his  vessel  a  strange  cargo  of 
the  thirty-one  discarded  idols  of  Aitutaki,  Mr.  Williams 
continued  his  missionary  voyage,  and  soon  came  to  the 
island  Mangai?,  which  is  an  elevated  coral  island  twenty- 
five  miles  in  circumference,  and  has  a  population  of 
about  3,000.  Here  the  natives  were  persuaded  to  re- 
ceive two  teachers ;  but  no  sooner  were  they  landed 
than  they  were  seized,  robbed,  and  treated  with  great 
brutality.  The  vessel  then  fired  two  cannon,  which 
frightened  the  natives  away  and  gave  the  teachers  an  op- 
portunity to  escape  to  the  vessel. 

Soon  after  the  departure  of  Mr.  Williams  an  epidemic 
on  this  island  caused  many  deaths,  which  the  natives 
attributed  to  the  wrath  of  the  God  of  the  white  men  be- 
cause of  their  abuse  of  the  teachers.  They  therefore 


THE   HERVEY   ISLANDS.  259 

gladly  welcomed  two  unmarried  Tahitian  teachers  who 
were  brought  to  them  during  the  following  year. 

From  Mangaia  Mr.  Williams  and  his  companions 
went  to  a  little  coral  island  called  Atiu,  and  persuaded 
the  king  of  this  island  to  come  aboard  the  vessel,  in- 
formed him  of  the  overthrow  of  idolatry  at  Tahiti,  and 
showed  him  the  rejected  idols  of  Aitutaki.  "He  was 
profoundly  impressed  by  what  he  heard  and  saw,  and 
especially  by  the  reading  of  the  following  words  of 
Isaiah,  '  With  part  thereof  he  roasteth  roast  and  is  satis- 
fied, and  the  residue  thereof  he  maketh  a  god,  and  wor- 
shippeth  it,  and  saith,  Deliver  me ;  for  thou  art  my 
god.'"  In  the  language  of  this  island  two  words  simi- 
lar in  sound  expressed  opposite  ideas  :  moa,  meaning 
things  sacred  to  the  gods,  and  noa,  things  profane  or 
common,  such  as  food.  The  chief  now  saw  the  folly  of 
making  a  god  and  cooking  food  from  the  same  tree, 
uniting  the  moa  and  the  noa.  His  wonder  grew  as  he 
spent  the  night  in  conversation  with  the  teachers  ;  and 
he  frequently  arose  and  stamped  with  his  feet  in  aston- 
ishment. In  the  morning  he  informed  the  missionaries 
that  he  would  destroy  his  idols  and  welcome  teachers. 

Learning  from  this  king  that  there  were  two  more 
islands  under  his  dominion,  Mitiaro  and  Mauke,  islands 
that  had  never  yet  been  seen  by  civilized  men,  the  mis- 
sionaries persuaded  him  to  pilot  them  thither.  On  arri- 
ving at  these  islands  they  exhorted  the  people  to  renounce 
idolatry,  and  by  the  aid  of  the  king  succeeded  in  per- 
suading them  to  do  so  and  to  receive  teachers. 

Mr.  Williams  often  afterwards  visited  these  three  isl- 


260  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

ands  and  was  always  gratified  by  the  steady  improve- 
ment of  the  natives,  and  sometimes  preached  to  congre- 
gations of  from  1,500  to  2,00.0  people. 

Learning  from  the  king  of  Atiu  that  there  was  an- 
other island  further  south,  Rarotonga,  which  had  never 
yet  been. seen  by  white  men,  the  missionaries  sailed  to 
search  for  it  ;  but  baffling  winds  retarded  their  course, 
their  supply  of  provisions  nearly  gave  out,  and  finally 
they  were  about  to  give  up  the  search  when  a  sailor 
from  the  mast-head  descried  this  island  in  the  distance. 
It  is  thirty  miles  in  circumference,  very  attractive  with 
lofty  mountains  and  verdant  valleys,  and  has  a  large  area 
of  land  under  high  cultivation  between  the  mountains 
and  the  ocean.  The  population  at  that  time  was  about 
7,000. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  vessel  the  king  of  this  island 
came  on  board  and  readily  consented  to  receive  two 
teachers  and  their  wives.  But  the  next  morning  these 
teachers  returned  in  a  canoe  in  a  pitiable  condition,  with 
a  sad  tale  of  brutal  treatment  they  had  received ;  for  a 
chief  of  a  neighboring  district  had  endeavored  to  take 
the  wife  of  one  of  them  for  his  harem,  in  which  he 
already  had  nineteen  wives,  and  she  was  rescued  only 
after  a  desperate  struggle.  One  of  the  unmarried  teach- 
ers, Papeiha,  now  offered  to  go  ashore  alone,  if  another 
teacher,  whom  he  named,  should  be  sent  to  labor  with 
him,  and  the  project  was  approved  ;  and  with  nothing 
but  a  Testament  and  a  few  school-books  he  swam  ashore, 
and  after  a  little  rough  treatment  was  permitted  to  dwell 
in  peace  among  the  people. 


THE   HERVEY   ISLANDS.  261 

A  beautiful  illustration  was  now  discovered  of  the 
influence  of  the  Tahitian  Mission  on  distant  groups.  A 
woman  from  Tahiti  had  come  to  this  island  and  informed 
its  people  of  the  arrival  at  Tahiti  of  white  men  from  for- 
eign lands,  of  their  superior  utensils,  of  their  knives, 
axes,  and  looking-glasses,  and  of  their  new  form  of  re- 
ligion, and  had  made  such  an  impression  on  them  that 
one  of  their  chiefs  had  named  one  of  his  children  Te- 
hova  (Jehovah),  and  another  Jetu  Terai  (Jesus  Christ)  ; 
and  thus  they  were  partly  prepared  to  receive  Chris- 
tianity. 

It  was  a  delightful  thought  to  Mr.  Williams  that  the 
first  message  from  the  outside  world  to  this  island  and 
to  Mitiaro  and  Mauke  was  the  gospel  ;  which  was  al- 
most as  wonderful  and  joyful  to  the  natives  in  their  deep 
darkness  as  the  glad  tidings  that  angels  sang  to  the  an- 
cient shepherds  in  Bethlehem. 

Overjoyed  at  having  discovered  these  islands  and 
introduced  the  gospel  as  the  first  message  to  them  Mr. 
Williams  and  his  companion  now  returned  to  Raiatea, 
and  as  they  approached  that  island  hung  out  on  the 
yard-arms  of  their  vessel,  as  tokens  of  the  success  of 
their  voyage,  the  thirty-one  idols  which  they  had  taken 
from  Aitutaki.  ' '  The  natives  of  Raiatea  were  greatly 
moved  by  these  visible  evidences  of  the  downfall  of  idol- 
atry in  Aitutaki. " 

The  assistant  teacher  who  was  asked  for  by  Papeiha 
was  soon  afterwards  sent  to  him,  and  they  together 
visited  all  the  chiefs  on  Rarotonga  and  reasoned  with 
them  about,  the  folly  of  idolatry.  Impressed  by  their  ex- 


262  THE  ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

hortations,  one  of  the  priests  at  length  brought  a  great 
idol  to  destroy  it.  A  crowd  of  the  natives  followed  him, 
calling  him  a  madman,  and  when  he  applied  a  saw  to 
the  head  of  the  idol  they  fled  in  terror  into  the  thick- 
ets. When  however  they  saw  that  no  harm  came  to  the 
priest  they  returned,  and  when  he  proceeded  to  roast 
bananas  in  the  ashes  of  the  idol  and  to  eat  them  they 
were  convinced  of  the  folly  of  their  superstitions.  Hear- 
ing of  these  acts  of  the  priest  the  chiefs  now  renounced 
idolatry,  and  proceeded  to  erect  a  chapel  for  Christian 
worship.  And  so  it  happened  that,  within  a  year  after 
the  discovery  of  this  island,  its  idols  were  abandoned, 
and  a  church-building  600  feet  in  length  erected  for  the 
worship  of  the  true  God. 

When  Mr.  Williams  returned  to  this  island,  as  he  did, 
accompanied  by  his  wife,  in  1827,  for  a  permanent  resi- 
dence, he  was  treated  to  a  novel  public  reception.  By 
request  of  the  teachers  he  took  a  seat  in  front  of  one 
of  their  homes  and  then  the  natives  came  in  procession 
from  different  districts  and  deposited  fourteen  idols  at 
his  feet.  "Some  of  these  idols  were  torn  to  pieces  be- 
fore his  eyes  ;  others  were  used  to  decorate  rafters  of  a 
chapel,  and  one  was  sent  to  England." 

Mr.  Williams  now  gained  a  new  influence  with  the 
people  by  the  wonder  that  was  excited  by  the  art  of 
writing.  Having  one  morning  forgotten  to  take  a  car- 
penter's square  to  his  work  of  building  a  chapel  he  wrote 
on  a  chip  a  message  to  his  wife,  requesting  her  to  send 
the  square  to  him,  and  asked  a  chief  to  take  the  chip  to 
her.  The  chief  at  first  incredulously  refused  to  do  so, 


THE   HERVEY   ISLANDS.  263 

but  after  a  little  urging  complied,  and  was  greatly 
amazed  when  Mrs.  Williams  handed  him  the  square. 
Holding  up  the  chip,  he  ran  through  the  village  exclaim- 
ing, "These  Englishmen  make  chips  talk."  The  con- 
sequence was  that,  when  the  matter  was  explained,  the 
natives  were  very  eager  to  learn  to  read  and  to  receive 
the  other  instructions  of  the  missionaries. 

A  touching  illustration  of  their  eagerness  to  learn  the 
way  of  life  was  afforded  in  the  case  of  .a  cripple,  who  by 
disease  had  lost  his  hands  and  feet  but  was  exceedingly 
industrious  in  tilling  the  ground  and  raising  food  for 
his  wife  and  three  children.  As  he  was  unable  to 
go  to  hear  Mr.  Williams  preach  he  sat  beside  the  road 
and  inquired  of  one  and  another  of  the  natives,  as  they 
were  returning  from  the  meetings,  what  Mr.  Williams 
had  said,  and  thus  acquired  enough  knowledge  to  be- 
come a  sincere  Christian. 

On  the  2ist  of  December,  1831,  Rarotonga  was  vis- 
ited by  a  terrific  hurricane,  which  lasted  three  days  and 
destroyed  nearly  every  house  on  the  island,  and  pros- 
trated thousands  of  breadfruit  trees  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  banana  trees.  The  ocean  increased  the 
destruction,  rolling  in  great  waves  far  up  on  the  land, 
and  carried  the  missionary  vessel  several  hundred  feet 
inland.  It  was  only  with  great  difficulty  afterwards  drag- 
ged back  to  the  ocean  and  repaired.  In  this  storm  the 
families  of  the  missionaries  suffered  greatly;  but  they 
found  refuge  with  the  natives  in  the  sheltered  nooks  of 
the  mountains. 

In  many  other  respects  it  was  not  all  sunshine  for 


264  THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

Mr.  Williams  and  the  other  missionaries  who  afterwards 
came  to  aid  him  in  this  beautiful  island.  Clouds  more 
appalling  than  those  of  hurricanes  sometimes  gathered 
over  them.  Their  lives  were  repeatedly  darkened  by  dire 
bereavement,  graves  were  made  for  their  little  ones  and 
wives  near  their  homes,  there  were  defections  of  hopeful 
converts  and  occasional  outbreaks  of  fiendish  character 
in  their  churches.  As  the  rocks  loomed  up  through  the 
bright  foliage  around  them  so  griefs  and  discouragements 
rose  through  the  triumphs  of  their  heaven-like  enterprise. 
But  the  holy  joy  they  experienced  in  their  work  far  sur- 
passed their  sorrows. 

The  London  Missionary  Society  at  length  located 
two  missionaries,  Messrs.  Buzacot  and  Pitman,  on 
Rarotonga  to  labor  in  conjunction  with  Mr.  Williams, 
and  by  their  joint  labors  churches  were  organized  in  all 
parts  of  the  island,  the  chiefs  were  influenced  to  form 
codes  of  law  for  governing  the  people,  and  the  Avarua 
Institution  was  established,  from  which  many  native 
missionaries  went  to  other  groups  of  islands. 

Of  the  progress  of  the  mission  work  in  the  island  Mr. 
Bourne  testified  in  1825  :  "Much has  been  said  concern- 
ing the  success  of  the  gospel  in  Tahiti  and  the  Society 
Islands ;  but  it  is  not  to  be  compared  with  its  progress 
in  Rarotonga.  In  Tahiti  European  missionaries  labored 
for  fifteen  years  before  the  least  fruit  appeared.  But  two 
years  ago  Rarotonga  was  hardly  known  to  exist,  was 
not  marked  on  any  of  the  charts,  and  we  spent  mucji 
time  in  traversing  the  ocean  in  search  of  it.  And  now  I 
scruple  not  to  say  that  the  attention  of  the  people  of 


THE   HERVEY   ISLANDS.  267 

this  island  to  the  means  of  grace,  their  practice  of  fami- 
ly and  private  prayer,  equals  whatever  has  been  witnessed 
in  Tahiti  and  the  neighboring  islands.  And  when  we 
look  at  the  means  it  becomes  more  astonishing.  Two 
native  teachers,  not  particularly  distinguished  among 
their  own  countrymen,  have  been  the  instruments  of 
effecting  this  wonderful  change,  and  that  before  a  single 
missionary  had  set  his  foot  upon  the  island. " 

The  last  visit  Mr.  Williams  made  to  this  island  was 
in  1834.  Of  the  change  in  the  condition  of  the  people 
he  said,  "When  I  found  them,  in  1823,  they  were  igno- 
rant of  the  nature  of  Christian  worship ;  and  when  I 
left  them,  in  1834,  I  am  not  aware  that  there  was  a 
house  in  the  island  where  family  prayer  was  not  observed 
every  morning  and  every  evening. " 

In  1841  the  directors  of  this  mission  reported  "that 
in  Rarotonga  the  Christian  churches  presented  a  most 
impressive  and  animating  aspect,  both  as  to  numbers 
and  character ;  and  the  social  and  moral  character  of 
the  people,  a  few  years  previous  loathsome  and  terrific, 
was  then  pure  and  peaceful.  One  of  the  most  consist- 
ent members  of  the  church,  and  an  active  evangelist, 
was  in  the  days  of  his  youth  a  cannibal.  An  institution 
was  commenced  about  this  time  at  Avarua  for  the  train- 
ing of  native  missionaries,  in  which  young  men  are  in- 
structed in  Christian  theology  and  other  branches  of  use- 
ful knowledge. " 

In  1888,  Rev.  W.  Wyatt  Gill,  in  a  meeting  in  Lon- 
don, gave  a  statement  of  his  work  as  a  missionary  in  the 
Hervey  Islands  since  1851.  "He  spoke  of  the  former 


268  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

condition  of  the  people,  of  their  love  of  revenge  and 
of  their  human  sacrifices,  of  the  bloody  feuds  that  existed 
among  them,  of  the  rule,  followed  by  all,  of  keeping 
alive  only  two  children  in  a  family,  and  of  the  whole 
aspect  of  their  life  as  something  fearful ;  and  stated  that 
all  this  had  been  changed  through  the  influence  of 
Christianity.  He  remarked  that  to  see  a  people  who 
once  were  cannibals  partaking  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
has  been  most  delightful.  Looking  around  upon  this 
assembly  gathered  for  this  purpose  he  had  seen  the 
bread  administered  by  one  to  a  man  whose  father  that 
man  had  murdered,  or  the  reverse.  He  stated  that 
the  work  of  evangelization  in  many  of  the  South  Pacific 
Islands  had  been  done  almost  entirely  by  natives  trained 
in  the  Avarua  school ;  that  hundreds  of  these  natives 
have  sacrificed  their  lives  to  carry  the  gospel  to  their 
brethren,  and  that  sixty  of  Mr.  Gill's  own  church  have 
been  killed  while  acting  as  missionaries." 

In  the  year  1853  the  writer,  while  on  a  voyage. from 
Hawaii  to  the  United  States  by  way  of  Cape  Horn, 
visited  Aitutaki  and  Rarotonga  in  company  with  a  son 
of  the  missionary  Rev.  D.  B.  Lyman,  of  Hawaii.  At 
Aitutaki  we  landed  on  a  coral  pier  which  measured  600 
feet  in  length  and  eighteen  in  breadth,  and  which  had 
been  constructed  by  the  natives  in  1826.  A  great  mul- 
titude of  the  natives  had  come  together  on  this  pier  to 
shake  hands  and  to  give  the  friendly  greeting,  "  Orana" 
(happiness  to  you),  a  reception  quite  unlike  that  once 
previously  given  to  a  company  of  shipwrecked  sailors 
who,  before  the  coming  of  missionaries,  landed  at  this 


JOHN  WILLIAMS. 


-  -/-v^  '->-' ' 

THE  MESSENGER  OF  PEACE. 


THE   HERVEY   ISLANDS.  271 

place    and   were    immediately   seized   by    the    natives, 
dragged  into  the  thickets,  and  killed. 

About  the  first  object  that  attracted  our  attention  was 
a  handsome  church  built  of  hewn  coral,  not  far  from 
the  beach.  Inquiring  for  the  missionary,  we  were  con- 
ducted to  the  residence  of  Rev.  Mr.  Royle,  who  occu- 
pied a  comfortable  building  embowered  under  noble 
orange  trees.  Very  kindly  Mr.  Royle  provided  horses 
and  a  guide,  by  which  we  went  across  the  island  (only 
three  miles  wide  and  nine  long. )  In  our  ride  we  passed 
through  a  continuous  garden  of  great  beauty  and  fruit- 
fulness.  Great  forest-trees,  a  species  of  banyan,  the  hau, 
and  the  kukui,  grew  beside  the  path,  while  cocoanut, 
breadfruit,  orange  and  banana  trees  everywhere  abound- 
ed. Almost  all  the  ground  not  occupied  with  trees  and 
residences  was  planted  with  potatoes,  yams,  taro,  and 
pineapples.  The  houses  of  the  natives  were  substantial 
buildings,  constructed  with  hewn  coral  and  masonry, 
and  surrounded  by  delightful  gardens  enclosed  with 
coral  walls. 

We  scarcely  saw  a  woman  on  the  island ;  for  they 
had  well  learned  to  conceal  themselves  when  ships  ar- 
rived. Mr.  Royle  informed  us  that  often  seamen,  en- 
chanted by  the  beauty  of  this  island,  would  desert  their 
ships,  but  invariably  in  a  few  weeks  they  would  be 
wearied  of  the  monotony  of  life  in  this  quiet  island,  and 
eager  to  embark  on  any  vessel  coming  thither. 

Just  as  we  were  about  to  return  to  our  ship  we  were 
sent  for  by  the  natives,  and  going  with  them  found  a 
great  crowd  assembled  who  opened  a  way  for  us  to 


2/2  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

come  into  their  midst.  We  were  then  addressed  by  the 
chief  of  the  island,  who  presented  us  with  an  immense 
quantity  of  fruit,  vegetables  and  curios,  as  a  token  of 
the  regard  he  and  his  people  entertained  for  missiona- 
ries and  their  children.  We  thanked  thein  for  their 
generosity,  and  bade  them  a  frienly  adieu. 

We  found  the  island  Rarotong'a  even  more  attractive 
than  Aitutaki.  It  combined  with  the  beauty  of  luxuriant 
tropical  vegetation  the  grandeur  of  lofty  mountains  and 
magnificent  valleys,  and  was  strikingly  picturesque,  with 
rocky  spires  and  jutting  crags  rising  out  of  its  sea  of 
foliage.  Here,  too,  we  found  a  fine  church  ;  and  en- 
joyed the  kind  hospitality  of  the  veteran  missionary 
Rev.  Mr.  Buzacot.  He  informed  us  that  a  few  years 
previous  a  great  hurricane  had  blown  down  one-half  the 
trees  of  this  island.  Yet,  as  we  went  about  with  him 
along  the  shore  and  far  up  one  of  the  valleys,  we  seemed 
to  be  walking  under  a  continuous  shade  of  orange, 
banana,  and  other  trees.  The  natives  were  a  fine-looking 
people,  and  seem  to  lack  little  more  than  the  color,  the 
wealth,  the  outward  garb  of  enlightened  races  to  rank 
with  civilized  communities.  It  was  a  great  pleasure 
to  meet  these  veteran  missionaries,  witness  the  wonder- 
ful results  of  their  labors,  and  pass  for  a  few  brief  hours 
from  the  tedium  of  a  long  sea  voyage  into  the  enchant- 
ment of  these  tropical  islands. 

In  1889,  by  the  invitation  of  the  chiefs  and  people  of 
the  Hervey  group,  a  British  Protectorate  was  proclaimed 
over  their  islands.  This  at  present  means  simply  that  no 
other  nation  is  to  be  allowed  to  annex  these  islands. 


THE   HERVEY   ISLANDS.  273 

In  the  Report  of  1891  of  the  London  Missionary 
Society  it  is  .stated  that  "with  the  increase  of  their 
wants  in  their  growing  intelligence  there  has  been  an  in- 
crease of  thrift  and  industry  ;  that  they  are  building  100- 
ton  vessels,  and  extensively  engaged  in  planting  coffee 
and  cotton." 

A  correspondent  of  a  newspaper  of  Auckland  testifies 
that  ' '  the  Rarotongans  are  the  most  advanced  of  all  the 
South  Sea  islanders  in  European  industrial  civilization. 
They  have  become  efficient  artisans  and  mechanics  ;  they 
build  houses  after  the  colonial  type,  also  wagons  and 
boats  ;  they  work  extensive  plantations  and  cotton  gin- 
ning machines  ;  they  are  good  seamen,  valued  for  their 
docility,  industry,  and  contented  disposition.  They 
cultivate  largely  oranges  and  limes  :  of  the  former  they 
export  millions ;  from  the  limes  they  express  the  juice 
and  ship  it  in  small  barrels,  some  2,000  gallons  yearly 
being  sent  away  from  the  island.  They  also  export  cot- 
ton, coffee,  bananas,  arrow-root,  and  copra.  Thus  they 
thrive,  are  contented  and  happy,  because  free  and  unop- 
pressed,  and  at  liberty  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  labors. " 

One  instance  of  the  benevolence  of  the  natives  of 
Mangaia  illustrates  the  Christian  character  of  the  people 
of  the  Hervey  Islands.  In  the  Report  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society  for  the  year  1892  it  is  stated  that  the 
people  of  Mangaia,  in  number  about  1,900,  after  paying 
all  their  school  and  church  expenses  and  the  stipends  of 
three  native  pastors,  contributed  for  general  missionary 
enterprises  upwards  of  $1,700. 


2/4  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 


CHAPTER   X. 

SAMOA. 

No  sooner  did  Mr.  Williams  gain  a  foothold  in  the 
Hervey  Islands  than  he  determined  to  push  on  in  the 
missionary  enterprise  to  the  numerous  islands  farther 
west,  and  with  this  view  began  to  build  a  vessel  to  be 
used  exclusively  for  missionary  purposes  ;  for  it  was 
difficult  to  obtain  passage  to  other  islands  by  passing 
vessels.  In  the  construction  of  this  vessel  he  displayed 
a  genius  for  mechanical  contrivance  hardly  to  have  been 
looked  for  in  a  missionary  apostle.  With  the  aid  of  the 
chiefs  of  Rarotonga  he  obtained  from  the  mountains  the 
timber  needed,  which  he  split  into  planks.  To  fashion 
the  ironmongery  required  he  made  a  forge  with  bellows 
of  goat  skins,  but  the  innumerable  rats  on  the  island  de- 
voured the  goat  skins  ;  whereupon  he  made  an  apparatus 
with  two  boxes  and  valves  with  which,  with  the  aid 
of  eight  or  ten  powerful  men,  he  was  able  to  make  the 
blasts  of  air  required  for  his  forge.  He  supplied  the 
vessel  with  sails  made  of  mats,  calked  her  with  cocoanut 
fibre  and  breadfruit  gum,  and  furnished  her  with  a  rud- 
der adjusted  with  a  piece  of  a  pick-axe,  a  cooper's  adze, 
and  a  large  hoe.  It  measured  sixty  by  eighteen  feet, 
and  was  of  seventy  or  eighty  tons  burden,  and  named  the 
"  Messenger  of  Peace. " 

The  first  voyage  of  this  vessel  was  successfully  made 


OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY 


SAMOA.  277 

to  and  from  Aitutaki,  and  then  Mr.  Williams  went  in  her 
to  Tahiti.  No  little  curiosity  and  wonder  were  excited 
among  the  seamen  at  Papeete  when  this  strange-looking 
craft  came  in  sight,  and  still  more  when  it  was  closely 
examined.  With  the  aid  of  competent  ship-carpenters  it 
was  then  partly  made  over  and  rendered  seaworthy. 

In  July  1830  Mr.  Williams,  with  his  colleague,  Mr. 
Barff,  and  seven  native  teachers,  embarked  on  this  vessel 
for  the  Samoa,  or  Navigator's,  Islands,  two  thousand 
miles  distant. 

The  Samoa  Islands  are  situated  between  13°  30'  and 
14°  30'  south  latitude  and  163°  and  173°  west  longitude, 
and  consist  of  thirteen  islands,  only  four  of  which  are  of 
much  importance.  The  most  easterly  is  Manua,  a 
dome-like  island,  rising  to  the  height  of  2, 500  feet.  It 
is  sixteen  miles  in  circumference,  and  covered  with  luxu- 
riant vegetation.  Near  it  are  the  two  islets,  Oloosinga 
and  Ofoo. 

About  sixty  miles  further  west  is  Tutuila,  an  island 
seventeen  miles  long  and  five  wide.  It  is  cut  almost  in 
two  from  the  south  side  by  the  inlet  Pagopago,  the  safest 
harbor  of  the  group.  The  coasts  of  this  island  are  bold 
and  without  reefs  except  at  the  mouths  of  the  harbors. 
Along  the  shores  there  is  a  beautiful  growth  of  cocoa- 
nut,  breadfruit  and  banana  trees ;  and  a  continuous 
forest  extends  to  the  summits  of  the  mountains,  which 
are  crowned  with  grand  perpendicular  lava  cliffs. 

About  thirty-six  miles  further  northwest  is  Upolu,  an 
island  forty  miles  long  and  fourteen  broad,  on  the  north 
side  of  which  is  Apia,  the  chief  town  of  the  group.  This 


2/8  THE  ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

town  extends  in  a  semicircular  form  around  the  head  of 
a  small  bay  that  affords  a  safe  anchorage  for  ships  in 
ordinary  weather  but  is  open  to  the  full  violence  of  the 
northwesterly  storms.  The  mountains  of  this  island  are 
not  lofty  but  very  picturesque,  with  varied  forms  of  deep 
gorges,  high  ridges  and  rocky  precipices,  and  with  an 
indescribable  beauty  of  tropical  vegetation.  "The 
plumes  of  the  cocoanut  wave  from  many  a  high  hill 
almost  as  profusely  as  from  the  groves  at  the  shore." 
Back  of  Apia,  at  an  elevation  of  750  feet,  is  a  grand  wa- 
terfall, which  is  a  valuable  landmark  for  ships.  At  the 
west  end  of  Upolu  are  two  islets,  Apolima,  which  is  rocky, 
and  inaccessible  except  through  an  entrance  just  wide 
enough  for  a  boat  to  enter,  and  Manono,  which  is  cov- 
ered with  breadfruit  trees. 

About  twelve  miles  west  of  Upoli  is  Savaii,  an  island 
that  has  been  compared  to  Hawaii,  to  which  it  probably 
gave  a  name  and  like  which  it  is,  in  comparison  with  the 
rest  of  its  group,  the  largest  island,  of  the  latest  volcanic 
formation,  and  has  the  highest  mountains  and  the  great- 
est areas  of  rocky  land.  It  measures  forty  miles  by 
twenty,  and  rises  to  the  height  of  four  thousand  feet. 

The  Samoas  have  substantially  the  same  flora  as  the 
islands  further  east  and  north,  but  some  different  species 
of  fauna.  Here  are  to  be  found  elegant  varieties  of  pig- 
eons and  parrots,  also  innumerable  bats,  called  "flying- 
foxes,"  which  often  hang  in  multitudes  from  the  branches 
of  the  trees,  "giving  the  appearance  of  some  curious 
fruit ;"  and  small  insectivorous  bats,  which  cluster  in 
thousands  among  the  rocks,  "clinging  to  one  another 


A  SAMOAN  GIRL. 


OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY 


SAMOA.  28l 

till  they  appear  like  brown  ropes;  also  giant  crabs, 
sometimes  three  feet  long,  which  climb  the  cocoanut- 
trees  and  tear  open  and  feed  on  their  nuts ;  and  harm- 
less snakes,  which  grow  sometimes  to  about  four  feet  in 
length.  The  missionary,  Williams,  during  his  first  visit 
to  Savaii  expressed  a  desire  to  see  some  of  these  snakes, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  some  girls  came  to  him  with  sev- 
eral of  them  twined  around  their  necks.  ' '  The  natives 
sometimes  enclose  the  snakes  in  their  bamboo  pillows, 
that  their  noise  of  crawling  and  hissing  may  induce 
sleep. " 

On  their  way  to  the  Samoa  Islands  the  missionaries 
on  the  Messenger  of  Peace  turned  aside  to  visit  the  Ton- 
ga Islands,  in  order  to  confer  with  the  Wesleyan  mis- 
sionaries in  that  group,  and  there  took  on  board  a 
Samoan  chief,  Fauea,  who  desired  to  return  to  Savaii, 
having  been  absent  from  his  home  eleven  years.  This 
chief  had  a  Christian  wife  and  was  friendly  to  the  mis- 
sionaries, and  engaged  to  assist  them  in  their  work.  On 
arriving  at  Savaii  they  received  a  warm  welcome  from 
the  people  through  his  influence.  As  yet  the  Samoans 
had  seen  but  few  people  from  civilized  lands,  and  they 
gathered  in  great  numbers  to  see  the  white  missionaries, 
some  climbing  the  cocoanut-trees  and  gazing  at  them  by 
the  light  of  torches  as  in  the  evening  they  went  to  pay 
their  respects  to  the  chief  of  the  district ;  and  finally 
they  took  the  missionaries  on  their  shoulders  and  carried 
them  with  blazing  flambeaux  to  the  chief.  He  gave  them 
a  royal  welcome,  supplied  their  vessel  with  abundance  of 
vegetables,  fruit  and  pigs,  and  gave  permission  for  the 


282  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

teachers  to  reside  among  his  people.  Messrs.  Williams 
and  Barff  promised,  as  they  left  the  island,  to  return  in 
ten  or  eleven  months. 

After  the  departure  of  the  Messenger  of  Peace,  Fauea 
assisted  the  Rarotongan  teachers  according  to  his  prom- 
ise ;  and  soon  the  chief  Malietoa  was  induced  to  make  a 
trial  of  renouncing  idolatry.  But  he  requested  his  fam- 
ily to  wait  six  weeks  to  see  the  consequences  before  they 
should  imitate  his  example.  After  three  weeks  his  sons, 
who  were  eager  to  escape  the  requirements  of  their  pa- 
ganism, gathered  their  friends  together  and  defied  their 
gods  by  eating  the  kind  of  fish  called  anae  (mullet),  in 
which  their  tutelary  gods  were  supposed  to  reside,  and 
which  were  regarded  as  tabu  to  them.  Their  immunity 
in  this  conduct  encouraged  the  people  to  renounce  their 
idolatry  ;  a  great  meeting  was  called,  and  it  was  decided 
to  send  their  chief  idol,  which  was  a  mere  piece  of  old 
rotten  matting,  to  sea  to  be  drowned  ;  but  by  the  request 
of  the  teachers  it  was  preserved  and  afterwards  given  to 
Mr.  Williams,  and  by  him  sent  to  the  missionary  muse- 
um at  London.  The  news  of  these  events  brought  na- 
tives in  canoes  from  the  neighboring  islands  to  seek 
instruction  from  the  teachers,  and  these  natives,  after 
returning  home,  destroyed  their  idols  and  erected  chap- 
els for  Christian  worship. 

Mr.  Williams  was  obliged  to  defer  his  return  to  the 
Samoa  Islands  about  two  years,  until  the  nth  of  Octo- 
ber, 1839.  In  returning  he  went  first  to  Manua,  the 
most  easterly  of  the  group.  Here  a  delightful  surprise 
awaited  him.  The  natives  came  off  in  canoes  to  his 


SAMOA.  283 

vessel  exclaiming  that  they  were  "people  of  the  Word," 
Christians,  and  were  waiting  for  a  missionary  ship. 
They  had  received  Christian  instruction  from  some  Tahi- 
tians  who  while  voyaging  among  the  Society  Islands  had 
been  storm-driven  to  this  island.  They  had  already 
erected  a  chapel,  were  regularly  observing  the  ordinances 
of  Christian  worship,  and  were  able  to  read  the  Tahitian 
Scriptures.  They  were  much  disappointed  that  Mr. 
Williams  could  not  give  them  a  missionary. 

Mr.  Williams  next  went  to  Tutuila,  and  endeavored 
to  land  in  a  boat  on  the  south  side  of  this  island  at  a 
place  called  Leone,  where  not  long  before  a  boat's  crew 
of  the  La  Perouse  Expedition  had  been  massacred.  See- 
ing a  large  crowd  on  the  shore  he  hesitated  to  land,  when 
a  chief  waded  out  towards  the  boat  and  urged  him  to 
visit  them,  saying  that  his  people  had  become  Christians 
through  the  instruction  of  teachers  who  were  left  by  a 
great  white  chief  twenty  months  previous  at  Savaii.  Mr. 
Williams  informed  him  that  he  was  the  chief  referred  to  ; 
whereupon  the  chief  joyfully  gave  a  signal  to  his  people 
and  they  instantly  rushed  into  the  sea,  seized  the  boat, 
and  carried  it,  with  Mr.  Williams  within,  high  up  on  the 
land.  Here  already  a  chapel  had  been  erected  and  a 
considerable  number  of  Christian  worshippers  gathered 
together  through  the  instruction  of  one  of  their  number, 
who  had  made  frequent  voyages  in  a  little  canoe  to  Sa- 
vaii and  thereby  gained  a  little  knowledge  with  which  to 
instruct  his  people. 

Continuing  his  voyage  Mr.  Williams  visited  Upolu, 
and  there  found  that   through   acquaintance  with   the 
13 


284  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

teachers  on  Savaii  one  hundred  of  its  people  had  re- 
nounced idolatry  and  were  earnestly  desiring  to  obtain 
the  instruction  of  a  missionary. 

Arriving  at  last  at  Savaii  he  was  joyfully  welcomed 
by  the  chiefs  and  people,  and  found  a  chapel,  and  held 
several  meetings,  addressing  audiences  of  over  a  thou- 
sand people. 

In  the  year  1835  the  London  Missionary  Society  sent 
six  missionaries,  five  of  whom  were  accompanied  by  their 
wives,  to  the  Samoa  Islands.  From  this  time  the  pro- 
gress of  the  mission  was  rapid  :  the  Bible  was  translated, 
schools  and  theological  seminaries  were  formed,  almost 
the  entire  population  embraced  Christianity,  and  many 
graduates  of  the  schools  went  forth  as  foreign  missiona- 
ries to  the  New  Hebrides,  the  Gilbert  group,  and  other 
neighboring  islands. 

In  1844  Rev.  Charles  Hardie,  with  Rev.  G.  Turner — 
who  in  the  previous  year  had  been  obliged  to  flee  for  his 
life  from  the  island  of  Tanna  in  the  New  Hebrides — 
established  a  self-supporting  boarding-school  for  higher 
education  at  Malua,  on  the  island  of  Upolu.  They  pur- 
chased three  hundred  acres  of  land  covered  with  wild 
jungle  and  bordering  on  a  lagoon,  erected  buildings,  and 
enrolled  one  hundred  students,  in  classes  of  twenty-five, 
for  a  four  years'  course  of  study.  With  the  aid  of  the 
students  the  land  was  cleared  of  brush  and  planted  with 
"ten  thousand  breadfruit  and  cocoanut  trees,  thousands 
of  bananas,  and  yams,  taro,  maize,  manioc  and  sugar 
cane,  and  a  road  was  made  in  circuit  around  the  tract 
and  shaded  by  the  cocoanut  palm."  Besides  cultivating 


MALIETOA,  KING  OF  THE  SAMOAN  ISLANDS. 


OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY 


SAMOA.  287 

the  soil  and  catching  fish  from  the  lagoon  the  students 
learned  useful  mechanical  arts.  The  produce  of  the 
land  and  the  fish  of  the  lagoons  supplied  all  their  wants. 
In  this  school  pupils  were  received  from  the  New  Hebri- 
des, New  Caledonia,  and  Savage  Island,  as  well  as  from 
the  Samoa  Islands.  The  graduates  of  this  school  have 
become  the  teachers  of  the  common  schools,  the  pastors 
of  churches,  and  "foreign  missionaries  ;  and  here  over 
2,000  teachers  and  native  ministers  have  been  trained. 
In  the  year  1891  ninety-five  graduates  of  this  school  were 
acting  as  ordained  pastors  in  the  Samoa  and  other  groups 
of  islands.  The  Malua  institution  has  been  rated  as 
foremost  in  importance  of  the  missionary  agencies  in 
Samoa. 

Besides  this  school  there  is  a  Normal  Training  School 
at  Leulumoenga ;  five  other  schools  are  conducted  by 
missionaries  on  Savaii  and  Upolu,  and  arrangements 
were  about  perfected  in  1892  for  the  establishment  of  a 
central  boarding-school  for  girls. 

The  result  of  the  work  in  these  schools  is  that  the 
number  of  native  pastors  in  Samoa  is  increasing  while 
the  London  Missionary  Society  refrains  from  appointing 
many  more  English  missionaries  for  this  group  of  islands. 
Some  apprehension  has  been  expressed  lest  the  appoint- 
ment of  new  foreign  missionaries  for  Samoa  may  be 
suspended  before  the  natives  have  advanced  sufficiently 
in  knowledge  and  character  to  wisely  manage  their 
churches  and  religious  enterprises.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  warning  will  be  taken  from  the  mistake  made  by 
the  American  Board  in  Hawaii. 


288  THE    ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

In  recent  years  the  attention  of  the  whole  world  has 
been  drawn  to  Samoa  because  of  the  unhappy  struggles 
of  its  people  and  foreign  nations  respecting  its  sovereign- 
ty. To  understand  these  struggles  it  is  necessary  to 
glance  at  a  long  history  of  dissensions  of  the  natives  and 
encroachments  on  their  rights  by  foreigners.  From  time 
immemorial  there  have  been  in  Samoa  intertribal  disputes 
and  wars  in  which  it  has~  been  no  difficult  matter  for 
foreigners  to  intervene  for  their  own  emolument.  Thus 
a  firm  presided  over  by  John  Caesar  Godeffroy,  of  Ger- 
many, artfully  and  by  fraud  obtained  twenty-five  thou- 
sand acres  of  the  finest  alluvial  land  of  Samoa.  Back  of 
Apia  they  put  ten  thousand  acres  of  this  land  into  use, 
inclosed  them  partly  with  hedges  of  limes  and  other 
trees,  intersected  them  with  avenues  of  palms,  and  cul- 
tivated them  with  cotton,  cacao,  coffee,  cocoanuts,  pine- 
apples and  other  fruits.  In  process  of  time  Godeffroy 
went  into  bankruptcy,  owing  $5,000,000,  and  this 
Samoan  estate  passed  into  other  hands,  and  was  placed 
under  the  management  of  one  Theodor  Weber  (Misi 
Ueba).  Another  firm,  called  "The  Polynesian  Land 
Company,"  obtained  300,000  acres  on  four  islands. 
The  result  of  this  land-grabbing  was  that  the  poor  natives 
were  to  a  great  extent  dispossessed  from  their  ancestral 
estates  and  from  their  means  of  a  livelihood. 

To  put  an  end  to  incessant  disputes  of  the  natives 
with  each  other  and  with  the  foreign  traders  the  Samoan 
chiefs,  in  1875,  with  the  aid  of  Col.  A.  B.  Steinberger, 
who  had  been  sent  by  President  Grant  to  secure  a  navnl 
coaling  station  in  Samoa,  formed  a  written  constitution 


ft 


PRINCE  MATAAFA,  SAMOAN  ISLANDS. 


SAMOA.  291 

of  government  and  a  code  of  laws;  and  in  1879,  with 
the  aid  of  Sir  A.  H.  Gordan  and  the  German  consul, 
established  the  "Municipality  of  Apia,"  the  Americans 
in  Samoa  objecting.  This  municipality  was  an  arrange- 
ment that  Apia,  the  emporium  of  Samoa,  should  be 
governed  by  a  Board  consisting  of  the  consuls  and  per- 
sons nominated,  one  apiece,  by  them.  At  about  the 
same  time  a  convention  of  commissioners  of  England, 
Germany  and  the  United  States  was  held  at  Washington, 
and  an  agreement  partly  made  by  these  nations  to  mutu- 
ally respect  each  other's  rights  in  Samoa. 

All  would  now  have  gone  well  with  Samoa  if  there 
had  not  been  a  •  deeply  laid  plot  of  the  German  govern- 
ment in  conjunction  with  the  German  residents  at  Apia 
to  obtain  possession  of  these  islands.  An  opportunity 
for  carrying  out  this  scheme  was  afforded  by  the  dis- 
agreement of  the  natives  in  the  appointment  of  their 
king.  According  to  Samoan  custom,  the  electors  of  the 
king  were  the  "Taimura,"  a  senate  of  seven  chiefs 
chosen  every  two  years  by  the  other  chiefs  and  repre- 
senting the  different  districts,  and  the  suffrages  were 
given  in  the  form  of  names  or  titles.  A  chief  by  the 
name  of  Laupepa  (sheet  of  paper),  a  man  of  excellent 
character,  who  had  been  educated  for  the  Christian 
ministry,  received  three  names,  Malietoa,  Natoaitele, 
and  Tamasoalii ;  another  chief,  Tamasese,  obtained  the 
title  Tuiana  ;  and  another,  Mataafa,  the  title  Tuiata. 
Laupepa  was  therefore  declared  king,  and  Tamasese  and 
Mataafa  vice-kings. 

The  German  firm  now  under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Weber 


THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

made  a  stand  against  Laupepa  and  in  favor  of  Tama- 
sese,  and  trumped  up  demands  against  Laupepa  for 
$  1,000  on  account  of  alleged  disrespect  of  natives  to  the 
German  nation,  and  of  $12,000  for  cocoanuts  stolen  by 
famishing  natives  from  the  German  plantations.  The 
German  consul  combined  with  Mr.  Weber  in  making 
these  demands  and  expelled  Laupepa  from  his  residence 
in  Apia.  Five  German  war  vessels  were  brought  to 
enforce  the  demands,  and  they  hoisted  the  flag  of  Tama- 
sese  and  declared  him  king. 

Laupepa,  being  of  peacable  disposition,  readily  com- 
plied with  advice  given  by  the  American  and  British 
consuls  to  avoid  war,  and  trusted  promises  made  by 
them  to  restore  his  rights.  At  length  from  a  hiding- 
place  in  the  forest  he  sent  a  message  to  the  consuls, 
reminding  them  of  their  promises,  and  calling  upon 
them  to  redeem  them  and  to  cause  the  lives  and  liberties 
of  his  people  to  be  respected.  Finally,  to  prevent  blood- 
shed, he  delivered  himself  to  the  German  war-vessels, 
and  with  touching  farewells  to  his  people  was  conveyed 
away,  first  to  Australia,  then  to  Cape  Town,  then  to 
Germany,  and  finally  to  Jaluit,  a  low  lagoon  island  of 
the  Marshall  group,  and  there  put  on  shore  and  kept  on 
coarse  fare  of  beef,  tea,  and  biscuit.  After  his  deporta- 
tion the  chief  Mataafa  gathered  six  hundred  troops  in 
the  forest  and  fought  several  desperate  battles  against 
Tamesese,  who  was  in  a  fort  under  the  protection  of  the 
Germans.  German  marines  were  now  sent  to  enforce  a 
disarmament  of  Mataafa.  A  combat  ensued,  and  twen- 
ty Germans  were  killed  and  thirty  wounded.  The  Ger- 


SAMOA.  293 

mans  now  declared  war  against  Samoa,  placed  Apia 
under  martial  law,  suppressed  the  English  newspaper, 
imprisoned  several  English  and  American  residents,  and 
bombarded  some  villages. 

This  high-handed  course  of  Germany  excited  intense 
indignation  in  the  Samoa  Islands  and  also  in  England 
and  the  United  States.  The  American  consul  at  Apia, 
Harold  Marsh  Sewall,  and  the  trader,  Moors,  sent  forci- 
ble despatches  about  the  state  of  affairs  to  Washington, 
and  finally  went  thither  themselves  to  give  fuller  informa- 
tion. The  result  was  that  the  government  at  Washing- 
ton telegraphed  to  Minister  Pendleton  to  notify  the 
German  minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  "that  the  United 
States  expected  that  nothing  would  be  done  to  impair 
their  rights  under  their  existing  treaty  with  Samoa." 
Thereupon  Count  Bismarck  telegraphed  to  the  German 
consul  at  Apia  that  "  annexation  was  impracticable,  on 
account  of  the  diplomatic  agreement  with  England  and 
the  United  States." 

These  contentions  about  Samoa  were  now  hurried  to 
a  settlement  by  a  hurricane  that  wrecked  all  but  one  of 
seven  war-ships  of  Germany,  the  United  States  and 
England  that  were  congregated  at  Apia  to  stand  guard 
over  the  interests  of  their  respective  countries.  Of  these 
ships  three  were  American,  the  Nipsic,  the  Vandalia,  and 
the  Trenton  ;  three  German,  the  Adler,  the  Eber,  and 
the  Olga  ;  one  British,  the  Calliope  ;  and  there  were  also 
in  the  Apia  harbor  six  merchantmen  and  nine  smaller 
craft.  It  was  considered  unsafe  for  more  than  four  ships 
to  be  anchored  in  this  harbor  at  one  time  ;  and  for  this 


294  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

reason  two  of  the  war-ships,  the  Trenton  and  Vandalia, 
had  taken  their  position  just  outside  of  the  reef. 

The  extreme  peril  of  remaining  in  this  harbor  when  a 
northerly  storm  was  blowing  into  it  was  well  known  ; 
and  it  was  the  custom  of  sea-faring  men,  at  the  first 
indications  of  such  a  storm,  to  put  to  sea  and  seek 
shelter  in  the  lee  of  the  islands.  A  captain  of  a  smaller 
vessel  once,  when  unable  to  get  away  at  such  a  time, 
scuttled  and  sank  his  vessel  in  shoal  water  as  the  only 
method  of  saving  her,  and  after  the  hurricane  raised  her 
again.  During  the  previous  month  a  storm  had  blown 
from  the  north  and  the  Eber  had  barely  been  rescued  by 
a  hawser  from  the  Olga,  and  the  ship  Constitution  and 
a  small  vessel,  the  Tamesese,  had  been  wrecked.  But 
now  these  war-ships,  like  angry  bull  dogs,  were  obliv- 
ious to  every  thing  but  their  quarrels  with  each  other, 
and  remained  at  Apia  notwithstanding  sure  indications 
of  a  coming  tempest. 

The  first  sign  of  the  storm  was  the  falling  of  the 
barometer  to  29°  u'  at  2  p.  M.,  on  March  15,  1889.  At 
night-fall  on  this  day  the  heavens  to  the  north  grew 
black,  and  heavy  rain  began  to  fall.  At  midnight  a 
cyclone  was  blowing  and  mountain  waves  were  rushing 
into  the  small  harbor  and,  like  vast  behemoths,  spring- 
ing upon  the  ships  and  almost  wrenching  them  from 
their  moorings.  The  ships  steamed  with  the  utmost 
power  of  their  machinery  to  the  aid  of  their  anchor- 
cables,  but  steadily  drifted  towards  the  reefs.  Before 
morning  the  Eber  struck  twice  on  the  reef  and  then 
sank,  stern  foremost,  carrying  down  all  of  her  eighty 


, 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


SAMOA.  297 

men  but  four,  who  were  rescued  by  the  very  natives  with 
whom  they  had  been  at  war.  At  seven  A.  M.  the  Nip- 
sic  fortunately  drove  upon  the  sand  beach,  losing  only  a 
few  of  her  men.  At  eight  A.  M.  the  Adler  drifted  near 
the  reef;  but  the  captain,  when  she  was  about  to  strike, 
watched  for  the  coming  of  a  mountain  wave,  suddenly 
slipped  his  cables,  and  his  ship  was  lifted  high  on  the 
reef  and  laid  over  on  her  beam  ends,  with  a  loss  of  twen- 
ty of  her  men.  The  remainder  of  her  crew  clung  many 
hours  to  her  wreck,  till  they  were  heroically  rescued  by 
the  Samoans.  At  nine  A.  M.  the  Trenton  and  the  Cal- 
liope were  about  coming  into  collision  with  each  other 
when  the  captain  of  the  latter,  as  the  only  means  of 
safety,  slipped  his  cables,  put  on  all  possible  steam  and 
slowly  worked  to  sea.  The  Americans  near  by  on  the 
doomed  ship  Trenton  gallantly  cheered  as  this  ship 
almost  imperceptibly  worked  her  way  against  the  torna- 
do. The  Trenton  now,  with  fires  gone  out,  her  rudder 
and  propeller  gone  and  all  her  anchor-cables  but  one 
broken,  was  drifting  on  to  the  reef  when  her  captain  set 
storm  sails,  slipped  his  cable,  and  endeavored  to  drive 
her  on  the  beach.  Just  before  this  the  Vandalia  had 
struck  the  reef  and  sunk,  and  most  of  her  crew  had 
climbed  to  her  masts,  and  now  the  Trenton,  "as 
unmanageable  as  a  wild  mustang,"  drove  against  these 
masts  and  shook  off  many  of  the  men,  while  some  of 
them  clambered  on  her  decks.  Forty-three  men  were 
drowned  in  this  way  and  by  the  sinking  of  the  Vandalia. 
But  the  Trenton  continued  on  her  course,  and  finally 
settled  in  shoal  water,  with  a  loss  of  only  one  of  her  450 


298  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

men.  The  Olga  now  loosed  from  her  moorings,  and 
with  all  steam  on  safely  reached  the  sand  beach.  All 
the  merchantmen  and  smaller  craft  in  the  harbor  were 
wrecked.  It  was  afterwards  ascertained  that  this  hurri- 
cane extended  more  than  1,200  miles,  and  destroyed 
three  ships  in  the  Hervey  Islands. 

The  news  of  this  hurricane  made  a  profound  impres- 
sion all  over  the  world  ;  and  Germany,  England  and  the 
United  States,  awe-struck,  as  if  a  higher  Power  had  in- 
tervened against  their  rapacity  for  the  islands  of  the  poor 
Samoans,  hastened  to  settle  their  disputes  by  an  interna- 
tional conference  at  Berlin.  The  result  of  the  conference 
was  that  Germany  brought  Malietoa  back  to  Samoa,  and 
he  was  reinstated  as  king.  The  contending  nations 
agreed  to  respect  the  autonomy  of  Samoa,  and  provided 
for  the  appointment  of  a  Land  Commission  to  settle  land 
claims,  and  of  a  Supreme  Judge  to  be  elected  by  the 
treaty  powers  or,  in  case  they  should  fail  to  agree,  by  the 
king  of  Norway  and  Sweden.  This  judge  should  adju- 
dicate questions  arising  between  the  treaty  nations  or 
between  the  natives  and  foreigners.  It  was  also  ar- 
ranged that  the  government  of  Samoa  should  be  carried 
on  by  a  senate,  called  Taimura,  consisting  of  the  king, 
vice-king,  and  the  chiefs  of  the  different  tribes,  and  by  a 
house  of  representatives,  called  the  Faipule,  elected  by 
the  people.  A  Swedish  jurist,  O.  K.  W.  von  Ceder- 
crantz,  was  appointed  Chief  Justice,  at  a  salary  of  $6,  ooo 
per  annum,  a  German,  Baron  Von  Pilsach,  President  of 
the  Municipal  Council,  at  a  salary  of  $5,000,  and  a 
Commission  sent  out  to  settle  land-claims  at  an  aggre- 


Adler. 


m 


Trenton.  Vandalia.  Olga. 

THE  WRECKED  SHIPS. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


SAMOA.  301 

gate  annual  expense  of  $15,000,  while  King  Malietoa 
had  a  nominal  salary  of  only  $1,000,  which  he  was  un- 
able to  wholly  collect.  Part  of  the  customs  receipts  of 
Apia  were  assigned  for  payment  of  the  salary  of  the 
President.  A  capitation  tax  of  one  dollar  per  annum 
was  imposed  on  each  man,  woman  and  child  in  Samoa 
to  raise  money  to  pay  the  other  salaries  and  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  bridge-building,  road-repairing,  and  all 
other  public  works. 

The  Samoans  led  such  free  and  easy  lives,  "  plucking 
their  food  from  trees,  sheltering  themselves  with  banana- 
leaf  thatch,  and  clothing  themselves  with  bark  cloth," 
that  they  did  not  see  the  necessity  of  taxes,  nor  were  able 
to  give  more  for  their  payment  than  "small  contribu- 
tions of  taro,  pigs,  cocoanuts  and  chickens,"  and  soon 
revolted  against  the  tripartite  government.  When  Malie- 
toa was  reinstated  his  old  companion,  Mataafa,  met  him 
in  a  friendly  way,  and  sought  to  engage  his  help  to 
throw  off  this  expensive  foreign  government,  but  found 
that  the  Samoan  king  could  do  no  more  than  a  child 
against  the  great  treaty  powers.  He  then  withdrew  from 
him  and  became  decidedly  hostile,  encamping  with  his 
warriors  at  Malie,  two  miles  from  Apia.  Finally,  on  the 
seventh  and  eighth  of  July,  1893,  he  attacked  the  gov- 
ernment troops  and  was  repulsed.  Three  ships  of  the 
joint  protectorate  then  steamed  to  the  place  of  conflict 
and  with  threats  of  bombardment  compelled  him  and  his 
chiefs  to  deliver  themselves  up  to  them,  and  in  a  few 
days  he  and  ten  of  his  chiefs  were  deported  to  the 
Marshall  Islands,  twenty-four  of  his  followers  were  sen- 


302  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

tenced  to  three  years  of  penal  labor,  and  eighty-seven 
fined. 

This  banishment  and  punishment  of  the  revolting 
chiefs  did  not  stop  the  rebellion,  and  consequently  the 
high  officials,  Cedercrantz  and  Pilsach,  seeing  that  they 
could  accomplish  no  good,  but  rather  were  exciting  the 
natives  to  war  by  imposing  the  burden  of  their  own  sup- 
port upon  them,  resigned,  and  H.  C.  Ide,  of  Vermont, 
U.  S.  A. ,  was  sent  out  as  Chief  Justice,  and  Mr.  Schmidt, 
a  German  resident  of  Samoa,  made  President.  Judge 
Ide  began  his  career  in  Samoa  by  inviting  seventeen  of 
the  chiefs  to  a  friendly  conference,  and  imprisoning 
them,  and  putting  them  to  work  with  convicts  on  the 
road,  because  they  refused  to  pay  the  capitation  taxes. 
The  natives  were  enraged  at  this  ignominious  treatment 
of  their  chiefs,  which  they  claimed  was  a  violation  of  an 
agreement  for  safe  conduct,  and  they  flew  to  arms. 
They  expressed  a  desire  that  Malietoa  should  continue  to 
be  their  king,  but  opposition  to  the  burdensome  foreign 
government,  and  with  nightly  prayers  and  psalm-singing 
marched  against  the  forces  of  the  king.  They  fought 
a  fierce  and  indecisive  battle,  and  by  the  last  accounts 
were  still  making  war. 

Thus  the  tripartite  protectorate  of  Samoa,  which  was 
not  designed  so  much  to  protect  the  Samoans  or  pro- 
mote their  welfare  as  to  protect  the  respective  interests  of 
the  great  contracting  nations  from  each  other's  rapacity, 
has  been  imposed  for  pecuniary  support  on  the  poor 
Samoans,  and  has  only  maddened  them  to  deplorable 
war  against  their  king.  The  greatest  boon  the  Samoans 


SAMOA.  305 

could  receive  would  be  to  be  delivered  from  these  pro- 
tectors and  permitted  to  govern  themselves. 

As  may  be  supposed,  the  turmoils  in  Samoa  have  had 
a  sad  influence  on  the  churches  and  powerfully  operated 
to  reduce  the  people  to  their  former  barbarism.  Yet  it 
is  a  remarkable  fact  that  only  one  pupil  of  the  Malua  In- 
stitute has  relinquished  his  studies  to  engage  in  these 
wars,  and  that  the  various  Home  and  Foreign  Mission 
enterprises  of  the  churches  have  continued  through  all 
the  dissensions.  The  patience  of  the  Samoans  in  endur- 
ing the  long  series  of  outrages  which  they  suffered  before 
resorting  to  war,  their  comparatively  humane  method  of 
conducting  the  war,  and  their  magnanimity  in  rescuing 
the  shipwrecked  Germans,  are  certainly  very  creditable  to 
a  people  just  emerging  from  paganism  and  rudely  tram- 
pled upon  by  wealthy  and  intelligent  races. 

The  whole  population  of  the  Samoa  Islands  may 
now  be  styled  as  nominally  Christian.  On  the  largest 
islands  there  are  probably  not  fifty  families  that  fail  to 
observe  family  worship  ;  and  the  genuineness  of  their 
piety  is  shown  by  their  benevoTence  and  missionary  en- 
terprise. In  1890,  besides  supporting  the  gospel  at 
home  they  sent  $9,000  as  a  thank-offering  to  the  London 
Missionary  Society  for  foreign  mission  work.  But  many 
years  of  religious  culture  and  development  of  the  educa- 
tional institutions,  now  organized,  are  needed  to  estab- 
lish the  churches  on  stable  foundations  and  best  promote 
their  mission  enterprises  for  the  neighboring  islands. 


306  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

MICRONESIA. 

MICRONESIA,  as  its  name  imports,  consists  of  numer- 
ous little  islands,  which  are  situated  in  the  far  western 
part  of  the  Pacific,  and  classified  as  the  Gilbert,  Mar- 
shall, Caroline  and  Ladrone  groups.  Voyaging  south- 
west 2, 500  miles  from  Hawaii  we  come  to  the  eastern 
group  of  this  Archipelago,  the  Gilbert  Islands  ;  so  named 
after  Capt.  Gilbert,  who  went  thither  in  1788,  and  whose 
fellow-voyager,  Capt.  Marshall,  at  the  same  time  gave 
the  name  Marshall  Islands  to  the  group  near  by  on  the 
north.  The  Gilbert  Islands  lie  on  both  sides  of  the 
equator,  between  3°  north  and  30  south.  Their  appear- 
ance to  one  approaching  them  is  of  plumes  of  cocoanuts 
apparently  growing  out  of  the  ocean  ;  on  going  nearer  a 
white  sand  beach  is  to  be  seen  and  brown  huts  nestling 
in  shrubbery,  and  beyond  through  the  trees  glimpses 
may  be  caught  of  still  waters  of  lagoons  ;  for  these  isl- 
ands are  low  coral  atolls.  They  consist  of  strips  of  reef, 
varying  from  a  few  yards  to  twenty  miles  in  length,  and 
from  a  few  feet  to  half  a  mile  in  breadth,  covered  with 
sand  and  encircling  lagoons,  appearing  with  their  bright 
vegetation  "like  green  beads"  on  the  blue  expanse  of 
the  ocean.  The  atoll  Apaiang  has  islets  averaging  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  broad,  the  largest  of  which  is  twenty- 
three  miles  long ;  and  this  atoll  encloses  a  lagoon  eigh- 


MICRONESIA.  309 

teen  miles  long,  six  miles  wide,  and  a  hundred  feet  deep. 
The  islets  of  Apemama  stretch  along  in  a  semicircular 
form  twenty-five  miles,  and  average  half  a  mile  in  breadth. 
Those  of  Tapiteuea  extend  thirty-three  miles,  and  cover 
an  area  of  six  square  miles.  The  largest,  most  fertile, 
and  most  populous  atoll  of  this  group  is  Butaritari  at  the 
north.  The  other  atolls,  to  the  south,  have  little  fertil- 
ity of  soil,  and  only  twelve  species  of  plants,  of  which 
only  the  cocoanut  and  the  pandanus  yield  food  for  the 
inhabitants. 

These  atolls  are  the  "tiny  deserts  of  the  Pacific;" 
for  they  are  situated  in  the  region  of  the  least  rains,  in 
the  "doldrums,"  where  calms  and  variable  winds  pre- 
vail, and  they  have  so  little  elevation  above  the  ocean, 
generally  only  about  five  feet,  that  they  do  not  catch  the 
rain-clouds  that  pass  over  them.  Though  the  cocoanut- 
tree  can  grow  even  where  its  roots  are  washed  by  the 
briny  waters  of  the  ocean,  it  does  not  thrive  well  where 
there  is  little  rain,  here  yielding  only  six  or  eight  nuts  to 
a  tree,  and  these  only  two  or  three  inches  in  diameter ; 
while  where  much  rain  falls  it  yields  from  200  to  300 
nuts,  and  these  of  the  largest  size. 

But  the  poorest  cocoanut-trees  yield  considerable 
food  by  the  flow  of  sap  from  their  flower-stalks.  The 
islanders  here  do  not  live  so  much  on  the  nuts  as  on  this 
sap.  Before  the  nuts  form  they  cut  off  the  flower-stalks, 
and  with  large  shells  as  containers  catch  the  sap  that  drips 
from  the  pruned  steins,  emptying  the  shells  twice  a  day. 
When  this  sap  is  kept  several  days  it  becomes  an  intoxi- 
cating drink,  but  when  fresh  it  is  healthful  and  nutri- 


310  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

tious.  One  cocoanut-tree  will  feed  a  man  ;  and  a  grove 
of  cocoanut-trees  is  as  valuable  to  a  family  of  natives  as 
a  herd  of  milch  cows  to  a  Bedouin  tribe  in  Arabia. 

The  poor  provision  afforded  by  these  trees  is  supple- 
mented by  the  kind  ocean,  which  pours  over  the  reefs 
and  into  the  lagoons  profuse  supplies  of  fish,  and  with 
these  most  beautiful  decorations  of  shells,  corals,  and 
marine  vegetation.  The  value  of  these  lagoons  has  been 
much  appreciated  by  the  Hawaiian  missionaries,  who 
have  compared  them  with  the  small  fish-ponds  construct- 
ed with  great  labor  in  their  islands.  Here  by  the  work 
of  nature  better  fish-ponds  have  been  made.  The  Sea  of 
Galilee  did  not  yield  more  fish,  nor  would  a  thousand 
acres  of  tropical  forest  yield  more  food,  than  these  natu- 
ral fish-ponds. 

Yet  seasons  of  famine  sometimes  prevail  in  these 
islands,  when  long-continued  storms  prevent  fishing,  or 
war  causes  destruction  of  trees.  Mr.  E.  Bailey,  the  del- 
egate of  the  Hawaiian  Board,  reported  that  during  his 
visit  to  these  islands  several  natives  died  of  starvation. 
The  American  missionaries  who  have  resided  here  have 
not  been  able  to  keep  in  good  health  while  living  on  the 
poor  fare  of  the  natives,  just  as  the  trees  of  their  country 
will  not  thrive  in  the  hot  sands  and  briny  waters  of  these 
islands ;  and  these  missionaries  have  been  obliged  to  im- 
port nearly  all  their  food,  as  well  as  their  other  supplies, 
as  though  they  were  living  on  board  of  ships. 

Northwest  of  this  group,  like  an  extension  of  it,  is 
the  Marshall  group,  consisting  of  two  nearly  parallel 
chains  of  atolls,  from  100  to  300  miles  apart,  the  eastern 


MICRONESIA.  311 

known  as  the  Ratak,  the  western  as  the  Ralik,  Islands. 
In  each  of  these  chains  of  islands  are  about  sixteen  atolls, 
measuring  from  two  to  fifty  miles  in  circumference.  One 
of  these  atolls,  Ebon  (A-bone),  is  a  ring-reef  of  twenty- 
five  miles'  circumference,  broken  into  eighteen  islets,  the 
largest  six  miles  long  and  half  a  mile  wide.  The  great- 
est and  most  populous  atoll  is  Arno,  the  most  important 
Jaluij,  which,  on  account  of  its  excellent  anchorage  for 
ships,  has  been  made  the  commercial  emporium  of  the 
group.  This  island  has  been  called  the  "Naturalist's 
Paradise ;"  for  here  on  a  reef-floor  200  feet  broad  and 
many  miles  in  length,  covered  with  only  a  few  inches' 
depth  of  water,  one  may  gather  the  choicest  of  shells,  the 
"  Orange  Cowries,"  worth  $50  a  pair,  the  most  beautiful 
of  corals,  and  innumerable  other  rare  curiosities. 

In  the  Marshall  group  there  is  more  rain  than  in  the 
Gilbert  Islands,  and  therefore  more  various  and  abun- 
dant vegetation.  Here  the  trunks  of  the  trees  are  partly 
covered  with  bright  green  moss  and  ferns,  and  here 
breadfruit  and  jackfruit  trees  are  found.  In  Mille  some 
of  the  breadfruit  trees  measure  twelve  feet  in  diameter 
four  feet  above  the  ground,  and  are  eighty  feet  in  height. 
A  few  of  these  trees  would  yield  more  food  than  many 
acres  of  wheat  and  corn. 

In  the  centre  of  these  islands,  as  also  in  the  Mort- 
lock  group,  there  are  depressions  in  which  fresh  water  is 
found  ;  and  here  taro,  arrow-root,  and  in  some  places 
bananas,  are  cultivated,  also  a  caladium,  the  ape  of  Ha- 
waii, which  has  leaves  measuring  five  feet  by  three,  and 
rising  on  their  stems  twelve  feet  high. 


312  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

Voyaging  on  westward  from  the  Marshall  group  we 
come  to  the  Caroline  Islands,  so  named  by  the  Spanish 
Admiral  Lazeano,  in  1686,  in  honor  of  the  royal  consort 
of  Charles  II. ;  and  first  we  arrive  at  Kusaie,  an  island  of 
volcanic  formation,  2, 200  feet  in  height,  covered  from  its 
beach  to  the  summits  of  its  mountains  with  dense  vegeta- 
tion. On  this  island  rain  is  so  abundant  that  everywhere 
there  is  a  splendid  jungle  of  palms,  tree-ferns  and  giant 
forest  trees,  and  the  trunks  of  the  trees  are  covered  with 
moss  and  wreathed  with  climbing  ferns  and  blooming 
vines.  The  vegetation  does  not  stop  at  the  shore,  but 
reaches  out  in  the  shoal  waters  of  the  bays  in  the  form 
of  great  mangrove-trees,  which  grow  only  in  salt  water. 
To  those  coming  from  the  low  coral  atolls  the  beauty  of 
this  island  and  of  Ponape  is  very  striking.  For  this  rea- 
son these  islands  have  been  called  "The  Gems  of  the 
Pacific."  Kusaie  has  fringing  reefs  that  are  scarcely 
anywhere  separated  from  the  shore. 

West  of  Kusaie  are  two  islands  of  coral  formation, 
Pingelap  and  Mokil,  which  rise  twenty  feet  in  height 
above  the  ocean,  and  resemble  the  Marshall  Islands 
in  their  vegetation  ;  and  a  little  further  west  is  Pona- 
pe, an  island,  like  Kusaie,  of  volcanic  formation,  and 
having  mountains  2,858  feet  in  height.  This  island  has 
barrier  reefs  separated  from  the  land  by  from  two  to 
eight  miles  of  water.  In  the  waters  thus  enclosed  the 
largest  ships  might  sail  entirely  around  it.  There  are 
also  twelve  small  islands,  the  "miniatures  of  Ponape," 
in  these  enclosed  waters,  and  fifteen  islets,  many  of  them 
of  coral  formation,  in  the  barrier  reef.  This  reef  mea- 


MICRONESIA.  313 

sures  eighty  miles  in  circumference  and  the  main  island 
sixty  miles.  On  the  west  of  Ponape  is  the  small  island, 
Pakin,  having  forty  inhabitants,  and  on  the  southwest 
the  small  Ant  Islands.  Ponape  has  a  fine  harbor  on  the 
east,  called  Owa,  which  is  completely  land-locked  ;  near 
by  is  the  Metalanim  Harbor,  which  has  within  it  a  re- 
markable peak  of  prismatic  basaltic  rocks,  called  Sugar- 
loaf  ;  and  on  the  northwest  is  the  Kenan  Harbor,  which 
is  faced  by  a  great  precipice  of  basaltic  rocks  :  and  on 
the  south  the  Kiti  Harbor,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Ran-Kiti 
River. 

The  flora  of  Ponape  is  as  rich  as  that  of  Kusaie. 
Here  is  found  the  ivory  palm,  which  has  a  fruit  re- 
sembling ivory,  and  rises  with  a  trunk  twelve  inches 
thick  to  a  height  of  eighty  feet.  Mr.  E.  Bailey  says, 
"Its  crown  of  immense  graceful  fronds  would  be  the 
despair  of  any  green-house  in  the  world.  I  have  seen 
many  graceful  palms,  but  none  comparable  to  this." 
Here  are  also  banyan  trees,  which  are  said  to  begin  their 
growth  from  seeds  lodged  by  birds  high  up  on  trees,  and 
which  spread  over  extensive  regions,  sending  down  innu- 
merable aerial  roots.  Mr.  Bailey  saw  one  of  these  trees 
beginning  its  growth  from  the  lofty  top  of  a  breadfruit 
tree,  which  it  doubtless  in  a  few  years  destroyed.  An- 
other remarkable  tree  is  the  durion,  which  has  been 
imported  from  Yap,  and  grows  to  the  height  of  seventy 
feet,  and  is  loaded  with  pear-shaped  fruit  nine  inches  in 
length  and  five  in  thickness,  most  offensive  in  odor  and 
most  delicious  in  taste.  The  English  scientist,  Mr. 
Wallace,  has  called  it  "The  King  of  Fruits,"  and  has 


314  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

remarked  that  it  is  worth  a  journey  across  the  ocean  to 
taste  it. 

As  might  be  supposed,  the  scenery  of  Ponape  is  very 
delightful.  Rev.  E.  Doane  has  said  of  his  home  on  this 
island,  "It  is  built  in  a  wonderfully  beautiful  spot, 
where  from  all  sides  I  have  views  of  almost  enchanting 
loveliness — of.  mountains  and  valleys,  the  lagoon  with  its 
wonderful  colors  in  the  water,  the  long  line  of  snowy, 
rolling,  roaring  breakers,  and  beyond  that  the  great  blue 
ocean  always  beautiful."  One  of  the  missionary  dele- 
gates from  Hawaii  has  written,  ' '  A  visit  to  this  island  is 
like  wandering  in  fairy  land.  The  verdure  is  excessive. 
We  cannot  get  through  the  bush  except  along  paths. 
The  people  carry  knives  to  cut  their  way.  Breadfruit, 
oranges,  taro,  bananas,  pine-apples,  papaias,  arrow-root, 
and  sago-palms  abound,  also  cheremoias,  guavas,  man- 
gos, and  other  tropical  fruits. " 

In  this  same  Caroline  group,  300  miles  southwest 
from  Ponape,  are  the  Mortlock  Islands,  named  after 
Capt.  Mortlock,  of  the  ship  Young  William,  who  discov- 
ered them  in  1793.  The  Mortlocks  consist  of  three 
atolls  :  Satoan,  which  has  sixty  islets  around  its  lagoon, 
Etol,  which  has  many  islets,  and  Lukunor.  Mr.  Bailey 
remarks  of  these  islands  that  their  soil  is  the  most  fertile 
that  he  saw  in  Micronesia,  and  their  inhabitants  the 
richest ;  but  they  are  so  low  that  they  have  sadly  suffered 
from  overflows  of  the  ocean.  In  1874  a  hurricane  drove 
great  waves  over  the  Lukunor  Island  and  destroyed  the 
breadfruit  trees,  and  many  of  the  natives  died  of  starva- 
tion. 


HEATHEN  MICRONESIANS. 


PONAPE  MISSIONARIES. 


MICRONESIA.  317 

Two  hundred  miles  northwest  of  the  Mortlocks  is 
Ruk  (Hogolu)  which  has  a  lagoon  100  by  forty  miles  in 
extent,  surrounded  by  ten  large  islands,  some  of  them 
300  feet  in  height,  all  very  fertile  and  abounding  in  fruit 
and  vegetables.  The  population  of  Ruk  alone  is  12,000. 
Further  on  northwest  are  numerous  atolls  and  two  more 
high  islands ;  for,  as  has  been  beautifully  remarked,  this 
whole  region  "is  studded  with  ocean  gems,  as  if  to 
mirror  the  starry  sky  above." 

The  climate  of  all  Micronesia  is  probably  the  mildest 
in  the  world  ;  too  mild  to  be  wholly  enjoyable.  Living 
here  is  like  living  near  a  furnace ;  for  here  are  brewed 
the  hot  airs  and  vapors  that  are  swept  by  westerly  winds 
to  the  northwest  coast  of  America,  and  which  there 
moderate  the  cold  and  yield  copious  rains.  The  heat 
here  is  not  excessive,  but  is  too  unvarying  for  comfort, 
hardly  changing  more  than  twelve  degrees  in  a  year, 
ranging  from  75°  to  87°  Fahrenheit ;  a  climate  like  that  to 
which  the  fabled  Lotus-eaters  went,  where 

"  It  seemed  always  afternoon ; 
All  round  the  coast  the  languid  air  did  swoon, 
Breathing  like  one  that  had  a  weary  dream." 

During  the  months  from  October  to  May  the  north- 
east Trade  Winds  oscillate  south,  and  blow  over  the 
northern  part  of  this  Archipelago ;  and  during  the  rest 
of  the  year  the  westerly  winds  prevail,  with  occasional 
heavy  gales,  and  bring  much  rain  to  the  high  islands  but 
little  to  the  coral  islands,  that  reach  up  no  mountains  to 
seize  the  treasures  of  the  clouds. 

It  would  seem  that  islands  like  these,  in  the  full  sweep 


318  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE  ^ACIFIC. 

of  the  ocean  winds  and  currents,  would  be  very  healthy 
places  of  residence ;  but,  strange  to  say,  malaria  prevails 
in  some  of  them.  It  is  developed  on  the  high  islands 
from  the  decaying  vegetation  in  the  swamps  under  the 
mangrove  trees,  and  on  some  of  the  low  islands  because 
perhaps  in  some  places  the  tides  do  not  flow  in  and  out 
the  lagoons  with  sufficient  force  to  keep  them  pure. 
Many  American  missionaries  have  here  fallen  victims  to 
malaria  as  well  as  to  the  enervating  climate  ;  about  as 
many  as  in  other  groups  have  been  killed  by  the  savages. 

The  population  of  Micronesia  has  been  estimated  at 
80,000  ;  consisting  of  25,000  in  the  Gilbert  group,  15,000 
in  the  Marshall  group,  5,000  in  Ponape  and  its  adjacent 
islands,  4,000  in  the  Mortlock  Islands,  12,000  in  Ruk, 
and  19,000  in  the  islands  further  west.  Probably  the 
population  has  greatly  diminished  since  this  estimate  was 
made;  as  that  of  Kusaie  was  estimated  at  1,500  forty 
years  ago  and  now  is  only  400.  It  is  remarkable  that  in 
the  most  barren  islands,  the  Gilberts,  the  population  is 
the  densest,  there  being  in  Butaritari  6,000  inhabitants  to 
an  area  of  six  square  miles,  1,000  to  a  square  mile,  and 
in  the  other  islands  of  this  group  about  the  same  propor- 
tion. 

The  Micronesians  are  a  mixed  race,  derived  from 
Polynesians,  Papuans,  and  Mongolians.  In  the  Gilbert 
and  Marshall  Islands  the  Polynesian  element  predomi- 
nates ;  in  the  Caroline  Islands  "  occasionally  the  oblique 
Mongolian  eye  is  noticed,"  and  features  of  real  beauty 
are  sometimes  seen.  The  languages  of  the  natives  are 
distinct  in  different  groups,  and  yet  sufficiently  similar  to 


MICRONESIA.  319 

indicate  a  common  origin.  In  the  eastern  part  of  the 
Archipelago  the  syllables  of  the  words  are  generally  open, 
in  the  western  closed  syllables  abound. 

Few  people  in  the  world  give  appearance  of  greater 
poverty  and  degradation  than  these  isolated  races  ;  espe- 
cially is  this  true  of  the  Gilbert  Islanders.  In  their 
perpetually  warm  climate  they  need  little  clothing,  and 
wear  little.  The  Gilbert  men  formerly  wore  none,  and 
the  women  wore  only  a  fringed  skirt  ten  or  twelve  inches 
in  breadth.  Says  Mr.  E.  Bailey,  "They  considered 
clothing  a  badge  of  shame,  and  were  as  unconscious  of 
their  nakedness  as  cattle."  In  the  other  Micronesian 
islands  the  men  'wore  skirts  twenty-five  or  thirty  inches 
broad,  and  the  women  two  mats,  each  a  yard  square, 
belted  at  the  w*iist. 

The  Gilbert  Islanders  dressed  their  hair  to  stand 
straight  out  at  great  length  in  every  direction,  ' '  a  fash- 
ion by  which  they  had  some  protection  from  the  sun. " 
The  Marshall  Islanders  tied  their  hair  in  knots  on  the 
tops  of  their  heads,  and  ornamented  it  with  feathers  and 
flowers.  The  Mortlock  men  wore  their  hair  in  rolls  on 
the  back  of  their  necks,  and  the  women  let  it  fall  in 
ringlets  on  each  side  of  the  face ;  making  their  appear- 
ance "decidedly  comely."  In  most  of  these  islands  a 
curious  custom  prevails  of  slitting  the  lobe  of  the  ear 
and  stretching  it  so  as  to  make  an  aperture  eight  inches 
long,  in  which  a  cylinder  of  leaf  or  tortoise  shell  is 
placed.  In  this  cylinder  ornaments  and  valuables  are 
carried,  sometimes  two  or  three  pounds'  weight  to  each 
ear. 


320  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

The  Micronesians  have  not  clung  to  their  little  is- 
lands, like  echinoderms  to  reefs  and  limpets  to  rocks,  but 
have  been  ever  voyaging  to  and  fro  on  their  lagoons  and 
far  out  on  the  ocean.  Where  large  trees  abound  they 
have  easily  made  "dug-outs,"  and  by  binding  wide 
boards  together  considerable-sized  canoes ;  but  in  the 
Gilbert  Islands,  where  the  only  trees  are  the  cocoanut 
and  pandanus,  their  only  resource  has  been  to  sew 
together  with  sinnet  small  strips  of  cocoanut  wood  and 
thus  make  canoes;  and  yet  in  the  frail  canoes  thus 
constructed  they  fearlessly  venture  over  the  greatest 
waves  of  the  ocean,  as  the  Tartars  ride  the  wildest 
steeds  of  the  desert. 

The  Marshall  Islanders  boldly  go  300  and  even  500 
miles  to  other  groups,  guiding  themselves  by  the  stars. 
Capt.  Gillett  of  the  Morning  Star  once  found  a  compa- 
ny of  these  natives  in  a  canoe  beating  their  way  home 
300  miles  against  a  head  wind,  and  gave  them  a  com- 
pass, and  taught  them  how  to  direct  their  course  by  it  ; 
but  one  of  them  pointed  to  an  old  man  with  a  great 
shaggy  head  of  hair,  and  said,  ' '  His  head  all  same 
compass. " 

The  religion  of  the  Micronesians,  if  it  may  be  called 
a  religion,  -is  spiritism.  They  have  no  idols,  no  temples, 
and  no  priests.  They  do  obeisance  to  certain  trees, 
rocks,  or  slabs  of  coral,  into  which  they  suppose  spirits 
have  entered ;  and  they  are  very  particular  in  the  care 
of  the  bodies  of  their  deceased  friends,  whose  spirits 
they  would  conciliate.  With  this  view  the  Gilbert  Isl- 
anders formerly  kept  the  dead  bodies  of  their  people, 


MICRONESIA.  323 

anointed  with  oil  and  covered  with  mats,  many  weeks, 
and  sometimes  over  a  year,  and  after  they  were  decayed 
away  carried  their  skulls  as  charms,  a  custom  that  illus- 
trates the  uncleanness  and  revolting  horrors  of  nearly  all 
pagan  religions. 

This  religion,  like  all  pagan  superstitions,  exerted  no 
restraint  on  immorality,  but  rather  fostered  it.  The 
Micronesians  lived  continually  in  strife,  carried  weapons 
at  all  times,  and  most  of  them  were  covered  with  scars 
of  wounds  received  in  battle.  Hardly  an  adult  Micro- 
nesian  is  living  who  has  not  seen  some  of  his  relatives 
killed  in  savage  combats. 

An  illustration  of  the  brutal  character  developed 
under  their  superstitions  was  afforded  by  the  late  king 
of  Butaritari,  Nakaiea,  who  ' '  was  famous  for  having 
hanged  one  of  his  wives  and  shot  three  Hawaiian  sailors. 
He  was  jealous  of  this  wife  ;  and  on  one  occasion,  as 
he  was  playing  with  her  on  a  schooner,  he  made  a 
noose  with  a  rope  and  proposed  to  her  to  put  her  head 
into  it.  She  complied,  thinking  he  was  joking;  but 
he  immediately  made  his  men  hoist  her  up  and  kept  her 
swinging  till  she  was  dead.  He  afterwards  had  twenty 
wives,  whom  he  kept  like  prisoners  in  jail.  When  the 
king  of  Hawaii  remonstrated  with  him  for  killing  Ha- 
waiians,  he  sent  word  he  would  fight  him  in  single  com- 
bat. He  weighed  200  pounds,  was  a  great  drunkard, 
and  passionately  fond  of  heathen  dances." 

At  first  view  so  degraded  a  people  as  this  would 
seem  fit  only  for  destruction,  like  reptiles  or  ravenous 
beasts,  or  like  the  Canaanites  of  old.  But  deep  as  is 


324  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE    PACIFIC. 

the  ocean  surrounding  their  reefs  and  high  as  the  heavens 
above  them,  so  deep  and  high,  and  more  glorious,  is  the 
Divine  Mercy  that  would  save  so  wretched  a  race  ;  and 
the  hearts  of  Christian  people  were  moved  to  seek  to 
save  and  reform  them. 

The  first  suggestion  of  the  mission  enterprise  to  this 
people  was  made  by  Rev.  John  D.  Paris  and  Rev.  C. 
B.  Andrews,  of  the  Hawaiian  Mission,  who  in  1850  vis- 
ited the  United  States  and  persuaded  the  American 
Board  to  send  Hawaiian  missionaries  to  them,  in  order 
to  awake  the  Hawaiian  churches  to  new  activity.  Adopt- 
ing this  plan  the  American  Board  sent  Rev.  Luther  H. 
Gulick,  M.  D. ,  son  of  the  missionary  Rev.  P.  J.  Gulick, 
of  Hawaii,  Rev.  Benjamin  Snow,  and  Rev.  Albert  A. 
Sturgis,  to  labor  in  Micronesia  in  conjunction  with 
Hawaiian  missionaries.  On  their  arrival  at  Honolulu 
two  Hawaiian  ministers,  Rev.  Messrs.  Opunui  and 
Kaaikaia,  with  their  wives,  were  appointed  to  accompany 
them.  A  meeting  was  then  held  by  the  Hawaiian 
Board,  formally  organizing  the  Mission  to  Micronesia 
by  appropriate  exercises  of  a  consecrating  prayer,  charges 
to  the  missionaries,  addresses  of  fellowship,  and  a  dis- 
course by  Rev.  L.  H.  Gulick.  The  children  of  the  mis- 
sionaries in  Hawaii  then  organized  themselves  into  a  so- 
ciety, and  undertook  to  support  Rev.  L.  H.  Gulick.  The 
Hawaiian  king  Kauikeaouli,  Kamehameha  III.,  placed 
in  the  hands  of  these  missionaries  a  letter  greeting  all 
the  chiefs  of  the  islands  in  the  great  ocean  to  the  west- 
ward of  Hawaii,  telling  of  the  errand  of  the  missionaries 
going  to  them,  commending  the  missionaries  to  their 


MICRONESIA.  325 

care  and  friendship,  exhorting  them  to  listen  to  their 
instructions,  testifying  of  the  enlightenment,  peace  and 
prosperity  resulting  in  Hawaii  from  the  influence  of 
the  Bible,  and  advising  them  to  renounce  their  idols 
and  acknowledge,  worship  and  love  Jehovah. 

On  the  1 5th  of  July,  1852,  these  missionaries  with 
their  wives,  and  Rev.  E.  W.  Clark  as  an  accompanying 
delegate  from  Hawaii,  embarked  on  the  chartered 
schooner  Caroline,  Capt.  H.  Holdsworth,  for  Micro- 
nesia. After  visiting  two  of  the  Gilbert  Islands  they 
arrived  at  Kusaie  on  the  2 1  st  of  August,  and  were  piloted 
into  the  harbor  by  a  Mr.  Kirkland,  one  of  the  three 
foreigners  residing  on  the  island.  They  found  the  king 
dressed  in  a  faded  flannel  shirt,  while  his  wife  wore  a 
cotton  gown  ;  and  they  observed  that  the  natives  treated 
him  with  great  respect,  crouching  on  their  knees  as  they 
approached  him.  The  foreigners  called  him  "Good 
King  George,"  and  had  reason  to  thus  name  him  ;  for  he 
ruled  his  people  well,  and  forbade  the  manufacture  of 
intoxicating  toddy  from  cocoanuts.  Kamehameha's 
letter  was  interpreted  to  him,  presents  were  given  to 
him  (red  shirts,  turkey  red,  and  scissors),  and  it  was 
explained  to  him  that  the  missionaries  came,  not  to  rule, 
but  to  command  all  to  ' '  fear  God  and  honor  the  king. " 
He  was  pleased  with  this  explanation,  and  consented  to 
the  residence  of  Mr.  Snow  among  his  people,  and  said, 
"  I  will  be  a  father  to  him."  After  conveying  the  other 
missionaries  to  Ponape,  the  Caroline,  on  her  return 
voyage,  brought  Mr.  Snow  and  his  wife  to  this  island 
and  they  were  welcomed  by  the  king. 


326  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

The  mission  work  on  Kusaie  was  successful  from  the 
very  beginning.  The  king  faithfully  assisted  Mr.  Snow 
and  the  other  missionaries  who  subsequently  came  to 
aid  him,  built  a  house  for  worship,  and  finally  himself 
united  with  the  church.  A  Girls'  Seminary  and  a  Train- 
ing School  have  been  many  years  successfully  conducted 
on  this  island  ;  and  pupils  from  the  Gilbert  and  Marshall 
Islands  have  been  educated  here  for  missionary  work. 

The  Caroline  arrived  at  Ponape  on  the  6th  of  Septem- 
ber, and  entered  the  Metalanim  harbor.  There  were  100 
foreigners  at  that  time  residing  on  this  island,  who 
on  account  of  their  dissolute  character  might  well  have 
been  called,  according  to  the  Chinese  style,  ' '  Foreign 
Devils. "  It  was  a  fortunate  thing  that  the  natives  soon 
distinguished  the  missionaries  from  them,  as  the  Chinese 
also  have  learned  to  do,  calling  them  "Jesus  men." 
Twelve  of  the  foreigners  came  on  board  the  Caroline  and 
begged  for  tobacco,  and  were  much  disappointed  that 
they  could  not  obtain  it.  The  missionaries  were  wel- 
comed by  the  chiefs  of  the  five  tribes  on  the  island,  and 
settled  in  two  districts. 

Two  months  afterwards  the  foreigners  became  decid- 
edly hostile  to  the  missionaries.  They  were  infuriated 
because  the  missionaries  exposed  a  plot  of  theirs  to  get 
possession  of  the  Metalanim  Harbor  by  a  fraudulent 
contract  with  the  chiefs.  Their  opposition  was  strength- 
ened by  the  dissolute  crews  of  trading  vessels  and  whale 
ships,  twenty  of  which  came  to  the  island  in  six  months  ; 
this  opposition  became  serious  when  the  small-pox  was 
introduced,  and  the  foreigners  informed  the  natives  that 


MICRONESIA.  327 

it  was  caused  by  the  missionaries.  On  the  iqih  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1854,  the  ship  Delta,  Capt.  Wicks,  arrived  with 
two  men  sick  of  this  disease,  contracted  at  Honolulu. 
The  captain  put  them  ashore  on  the  Paniau  Island,  a 
little  island  near  Ponape,  in  order  to  care  for  them  there 
in  seclusion  ;  but  the  Ponape  natives  stole  their  blankets 
and  thus  propagated  the  disease.  Dr.  Gulick  had  ob- 
tained vaccine  matter  from  Hawaii,  but  it  proved  worth- 
less ;  he  therefore  attempted  inoculation,  and  was  gen- 
erally successful  in  saving  the  lives  of  the  natives  on 
whom  he  operated.  About  this  time  the  house  occupied 
by  Mr.  Sturgis  burned  down,  and  he  was  obliged  with 
his  wife  to  camp  in  the  woods.  War  also  broke  out 
between  the  different  tribes,  and  raged  for  many  months. 
Dr.  Gulick  has  remarked  that  it  would  be  impossible  for 
any  one  to  realize  "the  gloom  that  was  over  them  during 
those  awful  months  of  sickness  and  death,  of  the  panic 
of  the  natives  and  of  war  between  the  tribes." 

After  eight  years  of  persevering  labor  the  missionaries 
on  this  island  were  cheered  by  the  conversion  of  three 
natives  ;  and  soon  eight  more  made  Christian  profession. 
A  church  was  then  built  measuring  forty  by  sixty  feet ; 
and  a  bell  for  it  was  received  from  friends  in  Illinois. 
Soon  afterwards  the  chief,  Nanakin,  and  fourteen  others 
joined  the  church.  In  1867  meetings  were  held  i 
twelve  places,  there  were  1,000  readers,  three  churches, 
100  church  members,  and  congregations  at  religious  ser- 
vices sometimes  increased  to  the  number  of  600.  "The 
missionaries  had  held  steadily  on  till  the  day  broke." 

In  1857  mission  work  was  begun  in  the  Gilbert  and 


328  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

Marshall  groups  ;  in  the  former  by  Rev.  H.  Bingham, 
son  of  the  pioneer  missionary  of  that  name  in  Hawaii. 
The  first  station  in  this  group  was  made  at  Apaiang,  than 
which  hardly  a  more  desolate  island  with  a  more  unat- 
tractive people  could  be  found  in  the  world.  To  come 
into  the  small  area  of  this  island,  with  its  contracted 
horizon,  its  unchanging  climate,  with  no  sounds  but  the 
unceasing  roar  and  gurgle  of  the  waves,  the  soughing  of 
the  winds  through  the  cocoa  plumes,  and  the  yells  of  the 
savages,  with  no  fellowship  with  congenial  spirits  and  no 
tidings  from  home  oftener  than  from  six  to  twenty-four 
months,  would  seem  like  going  into  solitary  confinement. 
But  it  was  even  worse — like  dwelling  in  a  mad-house 
with  its  different  wards  at  war  with  each  other ;  for  the 
people  of  the  neighboring  islands  occasionally  attacked 
each  other,  and  Mr.  Bingham  and  his  wife  were  once  in 
a  situation  like  that  described  of  Robinson  Crusoe  when 
savages  invaded  his  island.  A  fleet  of  canoes  from  the 
island  of  Tarawa,  six  miles  distant,  came  to  the  very  vil- 
lage where  Mr.  Bingham  dwelt  and  near  by  fought  a 
desperate  battle.  The  king  of  Apaiang  was  killed  ;  but 
the  Tarawans  were  finally  defeated,  and  driven  away, 
leaving  many  of  their  number  dead.  After  this  battle 
Mr.  Bingham  rescued  a  Tarawan  boy,  who  many  years 
afterwards  became  a  very  serviceable  helper  in  translating 
the  Bible.  Besides  the  perils  and  privations  experienced 
on  this  island  was  the  discouraging  indifference  of  the 
natives  to  the  work  of  the  missionary.  They  would  do 
nothing  except  for  pay,  and  demanded  tobacco  and  fire- 
arms as  their  only  pay.  It  was  remarked  that  a  native 


MICRONESIA.  329 

would  kill  a  man  for  a  plug  of  tobacco.  It  seemed  about 
as  difficult  to  gather  them  into  churches  and  schools  as 
to  tame  the  sea  birds  that  flew  over  the  island  and  the 
roving  fish  of  the  lagoons.  But  in  process  of  time  the 
unremitting  labors  of  the  missionaries  resulted  in  the 
conversion  of  many  natives,  and  churches  were  organized 
on  this  and  the  adjacent  islands.  After  seventeen  years 
of  residence  here  Mr.  Bingham  was  obliged  by  failing 
health  to  remove  to  Honolulu,  where  he  completed  the 
translation  of  the  Bible.  Other  missionaries  then  took 
his  place,  among  whom  were  many  Hawaiians,  and 
nearly  all  the  Gilbert  Islanders  embraced  Christianity. 

The  occasion  of  the  mission  work  on  the  Marshall  Isl- 
ands was  the  arrival  in  canoes  at  Kusaie  of  one  hundred 
storm-driven  natives  of  Ebon  who  there  landed  expecting 
to  be  killed,  according  to  the  former  customs,  but  were 
rescued  by  the  missionaries.  So  interested  did  Rev.  G, 
Pierson  and  Rev.  E.  Doane  become  in  these  natives  that 
after  their  return  to  their  homes  they  took  passage  on 
the  Morning  Star  to  labor  among  them.  They  were 
warned  by  sea-captains  that  it  was  dangerous  to  visit 
Ebon,  as  the  inhabitants  were  treacherous  and  ferocious. 
Foreigners  had  committed  such  outrages  on  these  natives 
that  they  had  resolved  to  kill  the  first  white  man  that 
should  come  to  their  shores  ;  and  when  the  Morning 
Star  with  these  missionaries  drew  near  they  put  off 
to  her  in  a  multitude  of  canoes  ;  and  the  captain  of  the 
vessel  became  apprehensive  that  they  designed  to  cap- 
ture her.  He  therefore  put  up  boarding-netting  and  put 
men  fore  and  aft  in  readiness  for  an  assault.  But  Dr. 


330  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE  PACIFIC. 

Pierson  addressed  a  few  Marshall  words,  which  he  had 
previously  learned,  to  a  man  in  a  canoe ;  and  then  the 
natives  exclaiming,  "  Docotor,  Mijineri,"  (Doctor, 
Missionary),  and  laughing  joyously,  requested  him  to 
land,  and  welcomed  him  to  their  island. 

The  work  of  the  missionaries  was  greatly  advanced, 
as  in  other  islands,  by  the  wonder  with  which  the  natives 
regarded  the  art  of  reading.  An  amusing  incident  illus- 
trated this.  One  of  the  missionaries  once  sent  a  native 
with  two  melons  and  a  letter  to  his  assistant  at  a  distant 
place.  On  the  journey,  the  sun  being  hot,  the  native 
ate  one  of  the  melons.  When  he  arrived  at  his  destina- 
tion he  handed  the  other  melon  with  the  letter  to  the 
teacher.  But  the  latter  inquired  for  another  melon. 
The  native  expressed  surprise  that  he  should  have  known 
that  two  melons  were  sent.  "Why,"  he  said,  "  I  covered 
the  letter  with  a  stone  while  I  was  eating  the  melon. 
How  could  the  letter  have  known  that  I  ate  it  ?" 

Other  missionaries,  American  and  Hawaiian,  subse- 
quently went  to  the  Marshall  group,  and  in  a  few  years 
a  wonderful  change  was  wrought  in  the  inhabitants. 

In  1871  Mr.  Sturgis  went  by  the  Morning  Star  to 
the  island  of  Pingelap  and  persuaded  the  people  of  that 
island,  who  were  "living  like  dogs  in  kennels/'  to  con- 
sent to  the  coming  of  missionaries.  But  when,  a  few 
months  afterwards,  teachers  were  sent  thither  the  king  of 
that  island  forbade  them  to  land.  It  was  found  that  a 
few  weeks  previous  the  pirate,  "Bully  Hayes,"  had  ex- 
torted from  the  king  a  written  agreement,  signed  by  the 
king's  ' '  marks, "  that  no  other  traders  and  no  missiona- 


MICRONESIA.  333 

ries  should  be  allowed  to  dwell  in  his  island  for  ten 
years.  But  about  this  time  six  natives  of  this  island 
were  carried  by  a  trader  to  Kusaie  and  there  set  adrift. 
They  were  kindly  treated  and  instructed  by  the  mission- 
aries. Two  of  them  were  converted  and  returned  as 
teachers  to  their  island.  A  pagan  sorcerer  of  their  island 
now  endeavored  to  kill  them  by  incantations,  but  in  the 
performance  fell  in  convulsions,  and  only  at  last  recov- 
ered when  the  teachers  came  and  prayed  over  him.  The 
natives  then  exclaimed  that  the  new  religion  had  tri- 
umphed. Other  teachers  were  then  sent  thither  and 
were  welcomed  by  the  people.  In  1885  Dr.  C.  H.  Wet- 
more,  of  Hawaii,  visited  this  island,  and  found  a  house 
of  worship  that  would  seat  1,000  people  and  a  church 
organized  with  250  members,  and  remarked  that  "the 
change  wrought  in  this  people  was  perfectly  marvellous. " 
The  mission  enterprise  to  the  Mortlock  Islands  began 
by  a  wonderful  self-consecration  of  a  royal  princess  of 
Ponape,  Opatinia,  daughter  of  one  of  the  kings  of  Pona- 
pe  and  heir  to  the  throne.  She  relinquished  her  oppor- 
tunity of  becoming  queen  and  offered  herself  as  a  mis- 
sionary to  the  dark  islands  to  the  west,  and  in  1873,  with 
her  husband,  Obadiah,  and  two  other  teachers,  was  con- 
veyed on  the  Morning  Star  to  Lukunor,  of  the  Mortlocks. 
On  arriving  at  this  island  the  accompanying  missionary 
asked  the  natives  whether  they  would  welcome  and  pro- 
vide for  these  teachers,  and  they  assented.  For  more 
than  a  year  the  Morning  Star  could  not  be  again  sent 
thither,  and  it  was  feared  that  these  teachers  had  seri- 
ously suffered ;  but  it  was  found  that  the  natives  had 
15 


334  THE  ISLANDS  OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

faithfully  fulfilled  their  agreement,  and  though  an  unu- 
sual storm  had  swept  great  waves  over  their  island  and 
destroyed  most  of  their  breadfruit  trees,  and  many  of  the 
natives  had  died  of  famine,  they  had  generously  fed  these 
teachers.  When,  a  year  after,  the  Morning  Star  again 
arrived,  a  multitude  of  natives  gathered  at  the  beach 
singing  songs  to  welcome  her,  and  the  missionary  dele- 
gate was  conducted  to  an  elegant  house  of  worship  that 
had  been  built,  and  a  large  number  of  the  natives  were 
organized  into  a  church. 

The  natives  of  the  great  atoll  of  Ruk,  further  west, 
now  "hearing  of  the  mission  work  in  the  Mortlock  Isl- 
ands, sought  for  teachers.  With  this  desire  a  chief  of 
Ruk  went  forty  miles,  to  Nama,  of  the  Mortlocks,  and 
persuaded  a  Ponape  teacher,  Moses,  to  return  with  him 
to  his  island  and  instruct  his  people.  This  chief  built  a 
house  of  worship  for  the  use  of  Moses,  and  in  a  year, 
with  thirty-six  of  his  people,  sought  baptism.  In  1884 
Rev.  Robert  Logan  and  his  wife  and  Miss  A.  Palmer 
went  to  the  aid  of  Moses,  and  settled  at  a  beautiful  place 
on  an  island  of  Ruk  which  they  named  Anapauo  (rest- 
ing-place). Mr.  Logan  did  energetic  work  till  he  died 
of  malarial  fever,  and  then  his  work  was  heroically  con- 
tinued by  his  wife.  In  1886  there  were  1,000  members 
of  churches  in  Ruk  and  the  Mortlock  Islands. 

Notable  assistance  has  been  rendered  to  the  Micro- 
nesian  Mission  by  the  pupils  of  Sunday-schools  in  the 
United  States.  At  the  suggestion  of  Rev.  T.  Coan,  of 
Hawaii,  subscriptions  of  ten  cents  a  share  were  solicited 
from  the  Sunday-schools  for  the  construction  of  a  vessel, 


MICRONESIA.  335 

to  be  called  the  Morning  Star,  for  carrying  supplies  to 
Micronesia  and  for  conveying  the  missionaries  to  and 
fro.  The  first  vessel  thus  built  proved  inadequate  and 
was  sold.  Another  was  then  built,  and  this  after  several 
voyages  was  carried  by  powerful  ocean  currents,  during 
a  lull  of  the  wind,  on  the  reefs  of  Kusaie  and  wrecked. 
A  third  Morning  Star  was  then  built  by  the  aid  of  the 
children  ;  and  this  also  on  February  23,  1883,  was 
wrecked  in  the  same  way  in  the  same  place.  The  fourth 
Morning  Star  was  then  built,  a  barkentine  of  430  tons 
with  auxiliary  steam  power,  and  this  vessel  has  done 
good  service  ever  since.  Recently  a  small  schooner, 
the  Robert  Logan,  has  been  built,  and  a  vessel  called 
the  Hiram  Bingham,  with  a  gasoline  engine,  for  use 
among  the  Micronesian  Islands.  The  Sunday-schools 
have  contributed  $114,593  for  the  construction  of  these 
vessels. 

When  at  length  all  Micronesia  seemed  about  to  be 
illuminated  by  Christian  light  kindled  from  island  to 
island,  dark  clouds  rose  through  the  establishment  by 
European  nations  of  foreign  sovereignty  over  this  Archi- 
pelago. Germany  proclaimed  a  Protectorate  over  all 
Micronesia  and  Spain  protested  that  Micronesia  be- 
longed to  her  by  the  right  of  discovery.  The  dispute 
was  referred  to  the  Pope  of  Rome,  and  he  assigned  the 
Caroline  Islands  to  Spain  and  the  Marshall  Islands  to 
Germany. 

In  accordance  with  this  decision  a  Spanish  war  ves- 
sel was  sent  to  Ponape  in  July,  1886,  and  the  com- 
mander, consulting  as  little  the  natives  as  he  did  the 


336  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

crabs  that  scrambled  over  the  sands  and  the  birds  that 
flew  over  the  island,  required  the  Ponapean  chiefs  to 
cede  their  property  and  sovereignty  to  Spain  ;  and  under 
duress,  with  heavy  hearts,  they  made  their  "marks"  to 
the  document  of  cession. 

In  the  following  year,  in  the  month  of  March,  an- 
other Spanish  war  vessel  took  thither  a  governor,  six 
Catholic  priests,  fifty  soldiers,  and  twenty-five  convicts. 
This  governor  at  once  took  possession  of  a  piece  of  land, 
called  Mejiniong,  the  deeds  for  which  had  long  been  held 
by  Mr.  Doane  for  the  American  Mission.  Mr.  Doane 
remonstrated,  offering  to  give  another  tract  of  land,  and 
was  arrested,  and  with  no  notification  of  charges  against 
himself  was  conveyed  2,000  miles,  to  Manilla.  But  by 
the  prompt  intervention  of  the  United  States  ship  Essex 
the  governor  of  Manilla  was  obliged  to  release  him  and 
convey  him  back  to  Ponape. 

But  before  the  return  of  Mr.  Doane  the  wrath  of  the 
natives  burst  forth.  They  had  been  obliged  by  the  Span- 
iards to  work  without  pay,  constructing  a  fort  on  the 
purloined  land.  When  at  length  they  refused  to  go  to 
work  a  company  of  twenty  soldiers  fired  on  them,  kill- 
ing two  of  them  and  wounding  three  more.  They  then 
rushed  upon  the  soldiers  and  killed  them  to  a  man. 
The  governor  and  the  rest  of  the  Spaniards  now  took 
refuge  in  the  fort,  and  the  natives,  feeling  as  they  some- 
times did  when  a  whale  was  stranded  in  one  of  their 
lagoons,  gathered  in  great  numbers  to  storm  the  fort. 
Seeing  that  defence  of  the  fort  was  impossible  the  gov- 
ernor and  his  officers  and  soldiers  at  midnight  undertook 


MICRONESIA.  337 

to  flee  over  the  shallow  water  to  their  war-ship,  and 
were  attacked  by  the  natives,  and  all,  fifty  in  number, 
killed. 

Mr.  Doane  now  persuaded  the  new  governor  to  pro- 
claim pardon  to  the  natives,  and  the  natives,  excepting 
the  Metalanim  tribe,  to  give  up  their  arms  and  submit. 
The  governor  then  sent  four  war  vessels  and  1,200  sol- 
diers to  the  Metalanim  harbor  of  Owa,  and  they  erected 
a  fort  on  the  mission  premises  notwithstanding  the  pro- 
test of  the  lady  missionary,  Miss  Palmer.  As  serious 
trouble  was  inevitable,  the  missionary  ladies,  Misses 
Palmer,  Fletcher  and  Foss,  Mrs.  Cole,  Mrs.  Rand,  with 
eleven  pupils,  took  passage  to  Mokil,  and  soon  after  the 
Spaniards  shelled  Owa  and  burned  the  mission  build- 
ings, consisting  of  three  dwelling-houses,  a  large  girls' 
schoolhouse,  and  a  church.  Three  battles  were  then 
fought;  but  in  the  almost  impenetrable  jungles  no  na- 
tives were  able  to  keep  at  bay  1,200  Spanish  soldiers. 
In  these  battles  the  natives  lost  only  six  men,  and  killed 
369  Spaniards  and  captured  100  guns.  The  Spanish 
governor  then  sent  messages  to  the  exiled  missionaries, 
requesting  them  to  return,  as  "their  presence  was  neces- 
sary for  the  maintenance  of  order. "  Recently  Spain  has 
yielded  to  the  demands  of  the  United  States  for  repara- 
tion, and  offered  to  pay  for  the  destruction  of  the  prop- 
erty of  the  American  Mission  ;  but  the  Spaniards  now 
forbid  the  missionaries  and  the  Morning  Star  to  come 
to  Ponape,  while  they  admit  vessels  of  every  other  kind. 
And  so,  while  the  Spaniards  have  done  nothing  for  the 
welfare  of  the  Ponapeans  during  the  hundred  years  since 


338  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

they  discovered  them,  they  claim  authority  by  the  "right 
of  discovery "  to  expel  the  American  missionaries,  who 
have  spent  forty  years  in  costly,  arduous  and  perilous 
labors  for  the  Ponapeans,  and  have  lifted  them  out  of 
pagan  barbarism  into  a  considerable  degree  of  Christian 
civilization. 

In  the  Marshall  Islands  the  Germans  avoided  war 
with  the  natives,  but  grievously  oppressed  them  by  im- 
posing taxes  and  obstructing  the  mission  work.  The 
little  island  of  Ebon  was  required  to  pay  annually  $500 
as  taxes  to  Germany,  and  the  other  islands  in  like  pro- 
portion. The  missionaries  were  forbidden  to  labor  in 
islands  where  they  had  not  previously  been  located ;  and 
two  of  them  were  imprisoned  for  several  weeks  for  preach- 
ing outside  of  their  own  fields.  Permission  was  refused 
them  to  buy  or  lease  land  for  sites  for  schools  or  churches. 
The  Morning  Star  was  required  to  take  out  annually  a 
license,  at  an  expense  of  $250,  for  selling  Bibles  and 
other  books  and  articles  needed  by  the  churches. 

The  natives  of  the  Gilbert  Islands  now  became 
alarmed  lest  one  of  these  Christian  nations  should  ex- 
tend its  kind  protection  over  them  also.  To  escape  such 
a  fate,  Tebureimoa,  king  of  Butaritari,  took  passage  to 
San  Francisco,  arriving  there  in  April,  1892,  and  offered 
his  island  to  the  United  States.  Not  receiving  a  reply 
from  President  Harrison,  but  expecting  a  favorable  an- 
swer, he  returned  home,  and  in  preparation  for  the  ces- 
sion to  the  United  States  constructed  a  wharf  1,000  feet 
long.  But  the  news  of  his  overtures  was  secretly  sent 
to  Britain,  and  the  British  war-ship  Royalist,  Capt.  Da- 


MICRONESIA.  339 

vis,  hastened  to  Butaritari,  and  there  on  the  1 2th  of  June 
hoisted  the  British  flag,  although  the  king  protested  that 
negotiations  for  annexation  to  the  United  States  were 
pending.  The  rule  of  the  British  in  this  island  has  thus 
far  been  excellent.  They  have  forbidden  the  sale  of 
liquors  and  firearms  to  the  natives,  and  put  a  stop  to  the 
' '  black-bird  traffic, "  or  slave-trade. 

Although  the  mission  work  in  Micronesia  has  been 
seriously  retarded  by  these  usurpations  of  European  na- 
tions the  churches  have  generally  held  their  own,  and  in 
some  of  the  islands  made  great  progress.  On  Ponape  a 
Christian  chief,  Mr.  Nanapei,  has  been  laboring  as  a 
missionary,  and  reports  that  the  native  Christians  are 
continuing  steadfast  notwithstanding  the  threats  and 
allurements  of  the  Spaniards,  and  that  their  schools  and 
churches  are  progressing  satisfactorily.  The  mission 
boarding-school  that  was  expelled  by  the  Spaniards  from 
this  island  is  now  successfully  established  on  Mokil.  In 
the  Marshall  Islands  the  native  missionary,  Mr.  Lanien, 
after  having  been  imprisoned  six  months  for  preaching 
at  Mejuro,  has  been  released  and  has  again  begun  to 
preach,  saying  that  he  would  rather  be  executed  by  the 
Spaniards  than  cease  from  preaching.  It  may  be  said 
that  a  great  work  of  God  has  been  performed,  and  is  still 
going  on,  in  these  islands.  From  the  inception  of  this 
mission  to  the  present  time  20,000  natives  have  been  re- 
ceived into  the  churches.  There  are  now  47  churches  in 
Micronesia,  with  an  enrolled  membership  of  4,509. 
There  are  four  training-schools  with  114  pupils,  three 
girls'  boarding  schools  with  79  pupils,  and  common 


340  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

schools  with  2,422  pupils.      The  annual    contributions 
for  evangelical  work  amount  to  $2,000. 

As  these  islands  wave  their  beautiful  cocoa  plumes  in 
triumph  over  the  briny  deep,  so  their  churches  now  sing 
glad  songs  of  victory  over  the  foul  paganism  of  yore. 
Though  the  native  converts  do  not  attain  to  the  high 
type  of  piety  seen  in  countries  that  have  enjoyed  centu- 
ries of  Christian  culture,  they  exhibit  instances  of  as  gen- 
uine goodness  as  is  found  in  more  favored  lands — a 
goodness  that  doubtless  causes  rejoicing  in  heaven.  And 
these  sea-swept  reefs  and  tiny  deserts  of  the  ocean,  that 
have  long  been  polluted  with  the  lust  and  cruelty  of  pa- 
ganism and  the  more  blamable  atrocities  of  savage  white 
men,  are  now  becoming  almost  holy  ground  by  the  con- 
secrated toil  and  premature  deaths  of  Christian  mission- 
aries, and  by  the  beginnings,  in  the  fiendlike  natures  of 
the  degraded  islanders,  of  heavenly  character  and  divine 
life. 


THE  TONGA,   OR   FRIENDLY,  ISLANDS.        343 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE    TONGA,     OR    FRIENDLY,     ISLANDS. 

CONTINUING,  the  narrative  of  mission  work  in  the 
Pacific,  we  now  pass  from  accounts  of  the  operations 
of  the  London  Missionary  Society  and  American  Board 
to  those  of  the  Wesleyan  Society  in  the  Tonga  and  Fiji 
Islands.  It  is  interesting  and  most  important  to  note 
that  no  less  efficient  labor  was  performed,  and  divine 
blessing  enjoyed,  by  the  agents  of  the  latter  society  than 
by  those  of  the  former.  The  peculiar  distinctions  that 
separated  the  denominations  represented  by  these  socie- 
ties were  of  no  practical  importance  in  the  missionary 
enterprise,  if  anywhere  else.  In  no  part  of  the  world 
has  that  enterprise  achieved  nobler  triumphs,  nor  enjoyed 
more  of  the  divine  blessing,  than  in  the  Tonga  and  Fiji 
groups. 

The  Tonga  Islands  are  situated  between  18°  and  23° 
south  latitude,  and  174°  and  176°  west  longitude,  and 
consist  of  three  clusters  :  the  Tongatabu  islands  at  the 
south,  the  Happai  group  in  the  centre,  and  the  Vavau 
group,  the  most  beautiful  of  the  Tongas,  at  the  north- 
west. The  collective  area  of  these  islands  is  374  square 
miles.  Only  thirty  of  them  are  of  any  considerable  size ; 
the  rest,  1 50  in  number,  are  small  islets  of  coral. 

In  the  Vavau  group  are  the  volcanic  peaks  Kao, 
5,080  feet  high,  Tofua,  2,846  feet  high,  and  Late,  1,820 


344  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

feet  high.  The  rest  of  the  Tongas  are  low  islands,  having 
a  few  hills  600  feet  in  height,  but  averaging  only  from 
40  to  60  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  ocean.  While  they 
lack  in  attractions  of  natural  scenery  they  are  unsurpassed 
in  the  beauty  of  their  vegetation  ;  for  their  soil,  which  is 
composed  of  ocean  sand,  vegetable  mould,  and  volcanic 
debris,  is  like  "garden  soil,"  and  so  well  cultivated  as  to 
make  them  indeed  gardens  of  beauty  and  fruitfulness. 

The  underlying  rock  of  the  low  islands  is  coral  lime- 
stone, and  also  a  white  crystalline  rock  which  is  perhaps 
a  metamorphic  from  sandstone.  In  the  strata  of  these 
rocks  stalactitic  caves  of  great  beauty  have  been  formed. 
Into  one  of  these  caves,  which  opens  under  water  in  the 
sea,  a  young  chief  once  dove,  when  condemned  to  die, 
and  here  was  visited  and  fed  by  his  lady-love,  until  to- 
gether they  went  in  a  canoe  to  another  group  of  islands. 

The  natives  of  the  Tonga  Islands  are  physically  and 
mentally  the  finest  of  the  Polynesian  race.  As  has  been 
remarked,  De  Quatrefages,  in  a  table  giving  the  stature 
of  different  races  of  men,  puts  the  natives  of  Samoa  and 
Tonga  as  the  largest  in  the  world,  giving  their  average 
height  as  5  feet  and  9.92  inches.  Their  superiority  to 
the  other  Pacific  Islanders  may  be  attributed  to  the  facts 
that  they  lived  in  a  better  style,  that  they  did  not  gener- 
'ally  contract  marriages  at  a  very  early  age,  and  that  they 
cared  well  for  their  children.  But  their  primitive  condi- 
tion was  bad  enough.  Cannibalism  and  other  inhuman 
practices  prevailed,  though  to  a  less  extent  than  in  some 
other  islands  of  the  Pacific.  When,  in  1773,  Capt.  Cook 
visited  this  group  he  named  them  the  Friendly  Islands, 


THE  TONGA,  OR  FRIENDLY,  ISLANDS.         345 

because  of  the  friendly  reception  the  natives  gave  him  ; 
but  he  knew  little  of  their  true  character.  From  events 
that  transpired  among  them  during  the  first  years  after 
their  discovery,  from  their  treacherous  murders  of  chiefs 
and  savage  wars,  we  may  infer  that  the  long  ages  of  their 
previous  history  had  been  a  fearful  period  of  barbarous 
strife,  revolting  crimes  and  gloomy  superstitions. 

To  this  people  in  their  primeval  darkness  mission- 
aries, in  1797  and  subsequent  years,  brought  that  light 
which  alone  has  transformed  human  nature,  and  some- 
times has  raised  the  vilest  of  men  to  angelic  character. 
Our  previous  consideration  of  the  mission  in  Tahiti  leads 
us  to  inquire  what  became  of  those  members  of  the  first 
company  of  missionaries  to  the  Pacific  who,  in  1797, 
were  conveyed  by  the  ship  Duff  to  these  Tonga  Islands. 
We  learn  that  they  went  to  Tongatabu,  and  landed  in  a 
district  called  Hihifu,  and  were  welcomed  by  a  chief;  that 
soon  afterward  this  chief  was  murdered  by  his  own  bro- 
ther and  the  island  involved  in  sanguinary  war,  and  dur- 
ing this  war  three  of  the  missionaries  were  killed,  and  the 
rest  were  obliged  to  hide  among  the  rocks  and  caverns. 

In  these  days,  when  a  halo  of  glory  surrounds  the 
name  of  missionary,  when  in  many  mission  fields  the 
comforts  and  luxuries  of  civilization  are  enjoyed  and 
there  are  opportunities  by  steamers  and  telegraphs  for 
quick  communication  with  friends,  it  is  well  to  look 
back  to  the  condition  of  these  pioneers  of  the  mission 
enterprise  when  it  was  new  and  untried,  and  regarded  by 
the  public  with  great  incredulity ;  when  a  voyage  of  six 
months  separated  them  from  their  relatives ;  when  they 


346  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

toiled  almost  hopelessly  amid  great  privations  and  perils, 
and  sometimes  were  robbed,  half-starved,  and  obliged 
to  flee  for  their  lives.  Their  sufferings  and  privations 
were  not  indeed  essential,  nor  to  be  desired,  in  this 
enterprise.  It  is  matter  for  rejoicing  that  the  sublime 
work  of  missions  is  becoming  comparatively  easy  and 
even  attractive  ;  but  the  disinterested  benevolence  shown 
by  these  first  laborers  in  this  cause  indicates  that  it  orig- 
inated in  something  higher  than  mere  human  motives 
and  has  something  of  the  lustre  of  heaven. 

These  missionaries  of  the  London  Missionary  Society 
struggled  on  many  years  amid  great  hardships  and  per- 
ils, with  no  prospect  of  success,  and  finally,  in  the  year 
1800,  went  by  an  English  ship  to  New  South  Wales. 
Then  for  over  twenty  years  these  islands  were  left  to  their 
primitive  heathenism.  Finally,  in  1822,  a  Wesleyan  mis- 
sionary, Rev.  Walter  Lawry,  encouraged  by  the  success 
of  the  missionaries  in  the  Society  Islands,  went  from 
Sydney  to  begin  missionary  work  at  Hihifu  on  the  island 
of  Tongatabu.  He  found  there  an  Englishman  by  the 
name  of  Singleton,  who  had  been  tossing  many  years  like 
a  drift  log  on  the  ocean  and  at  last  had  been  thrown 
upon  this  island,  and  had  remained  here  long  enough  to 
learn  the  native  language.  His  misfortunes  had  pre- 
pared him  to  receive  good  ;  as  men  sometimes  ' '  only 
by  shipwreck  find  the  shores  of  divine  wisdom."  He 
acted  as  interpreter  for  Mr.  Lawry,  accepted  the  gospel 
and  greatly  assisted  in  the  missionary  work.  After 
laboring  fourteen  months  Mr.  Lawry  was  obliged,  on 
account  of  the  failure  of  his  wife's  health,  to  go  to  New 


THE  TONGA,  OR   FRIENDLY,  ISLANDS.        347 

South  Wales.  The  reports  he  sent  home  of  his  labors 
encouraged  the  Wesleyan  Society  to  send  more  mission- 
aries to  the  Tonga  Islands,  among  whom  were  the  Revs. 
John  Thomas  and  John  Hutchinson,  who  arrived  in 
1826,  and  Revs.  Nathaniel  Turner  and  William  Cross 
and  Mr.  Weiss,  who  arrived  in  1827. 

Here  now  we  find  a  new  link  connecting  this  mission 
with  that  of  Tahiti.  These  missionaries  found  at  one  of 
the  chief  towns  of  Tongatabu,  Nukualofa,  two  native 
teachers  from  Tahiti  preaching  in  the  Tahitian  language, 
and  a  chapel  already  erected  in  which  240  persons  were 
regularly  attending  their  preaching.  Thus  the  mission- 
ary work  in  these  islands  grew  out  of  that  in  Tahiti,  and 
in  various  ways  derived  an  important  impetus  there- 
from. 

Tidings  of  the  introduction  of  a  new  religion  were 
now  soon  carried  to  the  other  islands  ;  and  the  chief  of 
the  Haabai  group,  Taufaahau,  went  to  Tongatabu  to 
judge  of  it  for  himself.  It  seems  never  to  have  occurred 
to  the  Polynesians  in  their  primitive  state  to  doubt 
respecting  the  value  of  their  idol-worship;  but  when 
once  doubt  was  suggested,  and  the  impotence  of  their 
idols  shown,  they  were  quick  to  renounce  their  supersti- 
tions. Taufaahau's  eyes  were  opened  to  the  folly  of 
paganism  by  his  visit  at  Tongatabu  ;  and  he  hastened 
home  to  his  island  to  destroy  his  idols  and  all  the  para- 
phernalia of  their  worship.  The  priests  made  opposition 
to  this  project  and  prepared  to  celebrate  a  great  festival 
in  order  to  promote  enthusiasm  for  their  pagan  rites. 
To  prevent  this  festival  Taufaahau  now  desecrated  their 


348  THE   ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

temple  by  driving  a  drove  of  pigs  into  it  and  by  sending 
his  women  servants  to  sleep  in  it ;  for,  with  the  low  esti- 
mation generally  entertained  by  pagan  nations  for  women, 
the  Tongans  regarded  the  presence  of  a  woman  as  a 
pollution  to  a  temple.  When  the  heathen  now  came 
with  their  offerings  of  turtle  and  sacred  fish  they  found 
their  gods  hanging  by  the  neck  from  the  rafters,  and, 
fearing  lest  they  themselves  should  be  similarly  treated  by 
the  wrath  of  their  king,  retired.  Taufaahau  then  sent  a 
canoe  and  brought  Rev.  John  Thomas  to  his  island,  and 
under  his  guidance  erected  a  large  chapel  in  which  con- 
gregations of  from  a  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred  people 
often  assembled. 

As  in  other  groups  of  islands,  the  mission  successes 
here  spread  from  one  island  to  another ;  for  Taufaahau 
now,  with  his  heart  glowing  with  the  new  light,  visited 
Finau,  the  king  of  the  Vavau  Islands,  and  persuaded  him 
to  renounce  idolatry.  Finau  did  this  in  a  dramatic  way. 
Causing  seven  of  his  principal  idols  to  be  set  in  a  row  be- 
fore himself  he  said  to  them,  "I  have  brought  you  here 
to  prove  you.  If  you  are  gods  run  away,  or  I  will  burn 
you."  As  none  of  them  ran  he  burned  them,  together 
with  eighteen  temples. 

Finau  left  the  government  of  the  Vavau  group  at  his 
death  to  Taufaahau,  who  had  been  baptized  with  the 
name  of  "  King  George  Tubou."  The  Tongatabu  group 
was  afterwards  added  to  his  dominion,  and  he  became 
king  of  all  the  Tongas.  He  still,  however,  continued  to 
be  an  earnest  and  humble  Christian,  and  became  an  ex- 
cellent local  preacher,  faithfully  meeting  the  classes  that 


THE   TONGA,   OR   FRIENDLY,   ISLANDS.       349 

were  appointed  to  him  and  superintending  the  schools. 
On  one  occasion  he  took  into  a  meeting  one  of  the  idols 
which  he  previously  had  suspended  to  the  rafters  of  a 
temple,  and  said,  "This  is  the  thing  I  formerly  wor- 
shipped ;"  and  then,  holding  up  first  one  hand  and  then 
the  other,  each  of  which  was  minus  two  joints  of  the  little 
finger,  he  said,  "My  father  cut  oft'  these  fingers  and 
oifered  them  in  sacrifice  to  this  very  thing. " 

This  King  George  was  a  man  of  great  ability  and 
high  character.  He  is  described  as  upwards  of  six  feet  in 
height,  remarkably  well  proportioned  and  athletic,  with 
a  fine  open  countenance  and  unassuming  dignity.  He 
has  been  styled  the  "Father  of  the  Tonga  Mission,"  so 
greatly  did  he  assist  this  mission  by  all  his  influence. 

In  1834  an  extraordinary  revival  of  religion  prevailed 
over  the  Tonga  Islands.  The  missionaries  believed  that 
on  one  day  1,000  souls  were  converted.  Other  revivals 
followed ;  and  the  result  was,  as  in  other  groups  of  isl- 
ands, that  forms  of  constitutional  civil  government  took 
the  place  of  the  previous  savage  despotism,  common 
schools  and  a  high  school  were  established,  and  at  Nu- 
kualofa a  training  school  was  formed  for  educating 
preachers.  It  was  called  "Tubou  College"  in  honor  of 
King  George  Tubou.  In  1860  nearly  500  licensed 
preachers  had  gone  out  from  this  institution  to  stations 
in  their  own  islands  and  distant  pagan  groups. 

In  1870  it  was  confidently  asserted  that  not  one  hea- 
then remained  in  the  Tonga  Islands.  The  Rev.  Robert 
Young  testified  that,  with  the  exception  of  fifty  persons, 
the  entire  population  had  embraced  Christianity,  that  not 


350  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

less  than  8,000  of  them  could  read  the  sacred  Scriptures, 
and  5,000  could  write  their  own  language. 

The  Tongan  Mission  had  now  become  not  only  self- 
supporting,  but  also  a  large  contributor  to  the  funds  of 
the  Wesleyan  Society.  Situated  as  these  islands  are, 
away  from  the  most  frequented  routes  of  ships,  they  have 
developed  better  results  from  mission  work  than  have 
been  seen  in  almost  any  other  groups  of  the  Pacific,  and 
exhibit  the  true  achievements  of  the  mission  enterprise. 


isg  to  i 


ItfEWZEAXAND 

rt> t  native r<i»ie  ofttt  tforctiT. 

£aiuinO«aut 

sftkt  Middle  I 


NEW    ZEALAND.  353 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

NEW   ZEALAND. 

ALTHOUGH  New  Zealand  is  situated  almost  at  our 
antipodes,  where  the  North  Star,  the  Great  Bear  and 
other  constellations  that  are  constantly  familiar  to  us 
are  lost  to  view,  while  the  Southern  Cross  and  Magellan 
Clouds  are  almost  overhead  and  the  frosty  breath  of  the 
antarctic  zone  blows  keen  in  the  face,  it  has  become  like 
a  near  neighbor  by  the  improved  facilities  of  trade  and 
travel,  and  is  of  peculiar  interest  to  us  because  of  having 
a  similar  Anglo-Saxon  people,  a  similar  civilization,  and 
probably  a  similar  destiny.  In  this  sketch  of  missions 
an  account  of  New  Zealand  is  needed  for  a  completion 
of  the  mission  history  of  the  Polynesian  race,  and  for  an 
illustration  of  the  influence  of  missions  on  the  foreign 
populations  in  the  Pacific,  and  it  is  interesting  to  pass 
from  consideration  of  the  little  palm-fringed  islands  of 
volcanic  or  coral  formation  to  that  of  a  country  which  is 
of  almost  continental  proportions  and  characteristics, 
and  has  the  climate  and  productions  of  the  temperate 
zone. 

New  Zealand  lies  between  the  parallels  of  34°  15'  and 
470  30'  south  latitude,  and  the  meridians  166°  and  179° 
east  longitude,  and  about  8,000  miles  southwest  of  San 
Francisco  and  1,200  southeast  of  Australia.  Its  area  is 
101,500  square  miles,  one-sixth  less  than  that  of  Great 
16 


354  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

Britain  and  Ireland.  Of  this  area  12,000,000  acres  are 
arable  and  50,000,000  fit  for  pasturage. 

New  Zealand  consists  of  three  islands  :  the  Northern 
Island,  500  miles  long  and  from  five  to  300  broad,  con- 
taining 44,000  square  miles;  the  Middle  or  Southern 
Island,  550  miles  long,  with  an  average  breadth  of  no 
miles,  containing  55,000  square  miles;  and  Stewart  Isl- 
and, 30  miles  in  diameter,  having  an  area  of  800  square 
miles.  These  islands  combined  have  been  compared  to 
a  boot  with  the  toe  turned  north,  also  to  Italy,  which 
they  nearly  equal  in  area. 

In  New  Zealand  we  find  the  volcanic  rocks  of  the 
Pacific  Islands  mingled  with  the  metamorphic  and  sed- 
imentary strata  of  the  continents.  These  strata  contain 
slate,  sandstone,  limestone,  coal,  copper,  silver  and  gold. 
In  the  North  and  South  Islands  gold  has  been  success- 
fully mined  by  hydraulic  processes. 

The  chief  feature  of  New  Zealand  is  the  grand  range 
of  mountains  which  runs  parallel  with  its  western 
coasts.  In  Stewart  Island  these  mountains  reach  an 
altitude  of  3, 200  feet ;  in  South  Island  they  reach  their 
greatest  height  in  Mount  Cook,  13,200  feet  high,  near 
which  are  many  peaks  of  nearly  the  same  height ;  in  the 
North  Island  the  highest  mountain  is  Ruapahu,  9,100 
feet  high,  which  rises  into  perpetual  snow,  and  has  one 
peak,  Tangariro,  that  is  an  active  volcano,  7,000  feet 
high.  Further  south  is  Mount  Egmont,  8,270  feet  high, 
a  perfect  cone  capped  with  snow. 

In  the  southwestern  part  of  the  South  Island  the  great 
arms  of  the  Southern  Ocean  have  extended  far  up  into 


NEW   ZEALAND.  355 

the  wild  solitudes  of  this  mountain  range ;  and  here  is 
the  grandest  scenery  of  this  country.  One  of  these  in- 
lets, called  Milford  Sound,  "three  miles  from  its  entrance 
contracts  to  the  width  of  half  a  mile,  and  its  sides  rise 
perpendicularly  from  the  water's  edge  2,000  feet,  and 
then  slope  at  a  high  angle  to  peaks  that  are  covered 
with  perpetual  snow.  Further  inland  the  sound  becomes 
more  expanded  and  receives  several  large  valleys  that  ra- 
diate in  different  directions  into  the  highest  ranges. 
Immediately  above  rises  Pembroke  Peak  to  the  height  of 
nearly  7,000  feet,  covered  with  perpetual  snow,  and  with 
a  glacier  reaching  down  to  within  2,000  feet  of  the  sea. 
The  lower  slopes  of  this  mountain  are  covered  with  fine 
trees  and  with  luxuriant  and  evergreen  foliage  of  the 
tree-fern  and  other  beautiful  undergrowth  of  the  New 
Zealand  forests.  Two  permanent  waterfalls,  one  700 
and  the  other  540  feet  in  height,  add  picturesque  beauty 
to  the  gloomy  and  desolate  grandeur  of  the  upper  part 
of  this  sound. "  (Dr.  Hector.) 

The  lower  portion  of  this  mountain  range  is  covered 
with  noble  forests  of  pine  and  other  valuable  trees  ;  and 
further  down  on  their  eastern  side  are  large  lakes ;  one 
of  which,  in  South  Island,  Lake  Wakitipu,  is  sixty  miles 
long  and  has  two  flourishing  towns  on  its  banks  and 
several  steamers  plying  between  them.  In  North  Island 
is  Lake  Taupo,  which  measures  thirty  by  twenty  miles, 
and  has  one  small  island,  Motu  Taiko,  of  extreme  beau- 
ty, in  the  centre.  On  this  island  are  also  the  Roturua 
lakes,  sixteen  in  number,  among  which  is  the  Rotoma- 
hana  Lake  (warm  lake),  one  mile  long,  with  water  at 


356  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

the  temperature  of  90°.  Here  also  are  geysers,  which 
eject  water  two  degrees  above  the  boiling  point,  holding 
silicates  in  solution,  and  also  the  "bathing-place," 
wh'ich  is  described  as  "terraces  of  soft  friable  stone  de- 
posited by  water  streaming  down  from  hot  pools  above. 
These  terraces,  white  and  pink,  three  hundred  feet  in 
width,  rise  two  hundred  feet.  As  you  ascend  you  step 
along  a  raised  fret- work  of  stone  as  fine  as  chased  silver. 
In  the  terraces  are  smooth  alabaster-like  bathing  pools, 
three  to  four  feet  deep,  formed  by  silica,  and  above  are 
wonderful  overhanging  cornices  formed  by  the  drip." 
Recently  this  "bathing-place"  has  been  broken  up  by 
earthquakes ;  but  new  depositions  of  silica  are  forming 
it  again. 

From  these  lakes  stretch  extensive  plains  to  the 
ocean.  These  plains  were  originally  covered  with  native 
grasses  and  ferns,  but  are  now  cultivated  with  grain  or 
planted  with  English  grasses  and  clovers  for  pasturage. 
Where  formerly  hardly  one  sheep  to  the  acre  could  be 
pastured  on  the  native  grasses,  now  from  five  to  seven 
sheep  to  the  acre  are  kept  on  English  grasses.  The  soil 
is  generally  lighter  and  better  than  that  of  Great  Britain. 
In  some  places  it  contains  iron,  and  as  much  as  seventy 
per.  cent  of  iron  has  been  extracted  from  the  ore. 

The  flora  of  New  Zealand  consists  of  one  thousand 
species  of  plants,  which  have  affinities  with  those  of  Au- 
stralia, Polynesia,  and  South  America.  The  most  con- 
spicuous trees  are  the  coniferae,  of  which  the  most  re- 
markable is  the  Kauri  pine  (dammara  australis),  which 
is  found  in  the  northern  part  of  the  North  Island.  It  is 


NEW  ZEALAND. 

sometimes  forty  feet  in  circumference,  and  rises  nine- 
ty feet  before  its  branches  begin,  and  lifts  its  head  above 
the  rest  of  the  forest  sometimes  to  the  height  of  two 
hundred  feet  above  the  ground.  The  gum  which  has 
collected  in  the  ground  from  ancient  forests  of  this  tree 
is  much  sought  after  for  use  in  glazing  calico  and  for  a 
substitute  for  copal-varnish,  and  is  worth  from  eight  to 
ten  dollars  per  hundred  pounds.  Almost  all  the  other 
trees  are  evergreen.  The  puriki  tree  resembles  teak  and 
rivals  the  English  oak,  and  is  said  to  be  almost  as  im- 
perishable as  stone.  Splendid  flowering  trees  abound, 
among  which  are  the  rata  (meirosideros  robustd),  like 
the  Hawaiian  ohia,  which  are  gorgeous  with  dazzling 
scarlet  blossoms,  and  the  kowhai  (Edwardia  microphylld), 
which  has  yellow  papilionaceous  flowers.  The  chief 
ornaments  of  the  forest  are  the  tree  ferns  (Dicksonia  and 
cyathea),  which  rise  thirty  feet  in  height,  the  palms 
(areca  sapida),  which  rear  their  green  crowns  in  pic- 
turesque majesty  throughout  the  whole  length  of  the 
islands,  and  the  vines  "which  entwine  the  topmost 
branches  of  trees  in  gordian  knots. "  One  writer  says, 
"There  were  convolvuli  and  clematis  and  passiflorae 
festooning  the  branches  with  their  light  garlands,  and 
enormous  brambles,  covered  with  wild  roses,  clamber- 
ing up  to  the  summits  of  some  tall  tree  and  toppling 
down  again  in  a  cascade  of  bloom."  Two  of  the 
vines  are  very  troublesome,  the  ripogonum  parviflorum,  a 
rope-like  vine  which  entangles  the  traveller,  and  the 
rubus  australis,  the  thorny  strings  of  which  scratch  the 
face  and  are  therefore  called  "bush-lawyers."  In  the 


358  THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

open  grounds  are  to  be  seen  species  of  viola,  primula, 
ranunculus,  and,  to  the  delight  of  Englishmen,  daisies 
(microcalis  australis); 

The  climate  of  New  Zealand  has  been  compared  to 
that  of  England  with  the  seasons  reversed,  but  is  more 
rainy  and  windy.  January  is  the  hottest  and  driest 
month  of  the  year,  July  the  coolest  and  most  rainy. 
Winds  blowing  from  the  northwest  bring  rain  to  all  the 
islands,  and  sometimes  snow  for  a  few  hours  to  the 
South  Island.  In  Auckland  the  rainfall  in  1882  was 
forty-five  inches,  in  Wellington  fifty-five  inches.  The 
average  temperature  of  the  North  Island  is  57°  F.,  that 
of  the  South  Island  52°,  while  that  of  London  is  51°. 
The  salubrity  of  the  climate  is  shown  by  the  fact  that, 
while  the  average  mortality  of  British  soldiers  quartered 
in  Great  Britain  has  been  16  to  1,000,  here  it  has  been 
5  to  1,000. 

Like  the  island  of  Saint  Patrick,  New  Zealand  has  no 
snakes  ;  and,  like  most  of  the  Pacific  Islands,  it  formerly 
had  no  quadrupeds  but  dogs,  swine,  and  rats.  An 
enormous  wingless  bird,  called  the  moa,  the  skeletons 
of  which  have  been  found  measuring  thirteen  feet  in 
height,  once  abounded. 

A  romantic  interest  attaches  to  the  origin  of  the  abo- 
rigines, the  Maoris,  of  New  Zealand.  Tourists  readily 
perceive  that  in  physical  characteristics,  in  language, 
customs  and  traditions,  they  are  the  same  race  that  in- 
habits the  other  Pacific  Islands  even  as  far  north  as  Ha- 
waii. The  resemblance  of  their  language  to  that  of 
Hawaii  is  very  striking.  To  best  observe  this,  it  must 


NEW    ZEALAND.  359 

be  noted  that  among  Polynesian  tribes  the  letters  1  and  r 
are  interchangeable,  as  also  k  and  t,  and  that  the  letter  k 
when  found  between  vowels  is  often  dropped  in  Hawaii. 
Thus  the  New  Zealand  word  ariki  (chief)  becomes  alii  in 
Hawaii,  and  the  word  atua  (god),  aktia,  and  Hawaiki  be- 
comes Hawaii. 

The  Maoris  claim  that  they  emigrated  from  Hawaiki, 
doubtless  meaning  Savaii  (of  the  Samoa  group)  and 
from  Rarotonga  (of  the  Hervey  group),  and  Pirima  and 
Manono  (of  the  Samoa  group).  Their  tradition  is  that 
about  the  year  140x3  A.  D.,  as  it  is  estimated  from  their 
genealogies  of  their  kings,  two  chiefs  fled  in  canoes  from 
Samoa  on  account  of  war,  and  were  driven  by  stormy 
weather  to  New  Zealand,  and  returning  brought  eight 
hundred  of  their  countrymen  in  twenty  canoes  to  the 
splendid  islands  they  had  discovered. 

A  detailed  description  of  the  customs  and  supersti- 
tions of  the  Maoris  would  be  little  more  than  a  repeti- 
tion of  what  has  been  narrated  of  the  peoples  of  the 
other  Pacific  islands.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  they  wor- 
shipped three  chief  gods,  Tane,  Ra  and  Tangaroa,  cor- 
responding to  Kane,  Ka  and  Kaneloa  of  Hawaii,  and  to 
supposed  deities  of  similar  names  in  most  of  the  other 
islands  of  the  Pacific  ;  that,  like  other  Polynesians,  they 
imposed  on  themselves  the  restrictions  of  tabu,  practiced 
sorcery,  tattooed  their  bodies,  and  were  cannibals.  The 
stories  of  their  cannibalism  are  revolting.  They  differed 
from  the  other  Polynesians  in  that,  besides  feasting  on 
enemies  who  were  killed  in  battle,  they  specially  fattened 
slaves  for  their  feasts.  A  poor  slave  girl  would  some- 


360  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

times  be  commanded  by  her  master  to  fetch  fuel,  light  a 
fire,  and  heat  an  oven,  and  then  would  be  knocked  in 
the  head  and  cast  into  the  oven.  One  cannibal  testi- 
fied that,  when  he  first  heard  the  missionaries  speak  of 
the  sinfulness  of  eating  human  flesh,  he  thought  their 
words  were  very  foolish,  and  questioned  whether  it  was 
any  more  wicked  to  eat  a  man  than  a  dog,  or  pig,  or  any 
other  animal ;  but  remembering  the  words  he  did  not 
relish  his  next  cannibal  feast,  and  finally  loathed  the 
sight  of  such  food  and  became  a  Christian. 

The  Maoris  had  a  singular  custom,  called  muru,  of 
showing  sympathy  for  each  other  in  misfortunes  by  rob- 
bing each  other  of  property.  If  a  man's  wife  ran  away, 
or  his  child  got  his  leg  broken,  or  any  other  calamity 
came  upon  him,  a  taua  (multitude)  of  his  neighbors 
would  kindly  call  on  him,  and  in  condolence  eat  all  his 
food  and  carry  away  all  his  goods.  This  prevented  the 
accumulation  of  property. 

The  Maoris  dressed  in  shaggy  mats  made  of  flax  (the 
phormium  tenax,  which  was  a  flag-like  plant  with  sword- 
shaped  drooping  leaves).  Their  food  consisted  chiefly  of 
fern  roots  (the  pteris  esculenta),  also  of  palm  shoots  and 
kumera  (the  sweet  potato),  but  they  ate  little  meat. 
They  cooked  their  food  by  burying  it,  wrapped  in  leaves 
with  heated  stones,  in  the  ground.  They  made  no  use 
of  the  metals  which  abounded  in  their  country,  but  used 
stone  adzes  with  surprising  skill. 

In  comparison  with  the  degraded  Australians  and  the 
natives  of  the  New  Hebrides  they  were  a  noble  race. 
Their  average  height  was  the  same  as  that  of  Europeans, 


NEW  ZEALAND.  363 

five  feet  and  six  inches.  Rev.  Samuel  Marsden,  founder 
of  the  missions  in  New  Zealand,  said  of  them  :  "They 
are  vastly  superior  in  understanding  to  anything  you  can 
imagine  of  a  savage  nation."  Sir  Anthony  Trollope  has 
written  that  "they  are  more  pliable  and  nearer  akin  in 
their  manners  to  civilized  mankind  than  are  the  Ameri- 
can Indians,  and  more  manly,  more  courteous,  as  well 
as  more  sagacious  than  the  African  negro. "  The  British 
military  officers  have  testified  that  in  war,  when  supplied 
with  firearms,  they  were  fully  a  match  for  the  best  disci- 
plined English  troops.  In  defense  of  the  fortification 
Gate  Pah,  300  of  them  repulsed  1,600  English  soldiers. 

Like  the  other  Polynesians,  the  Maoris  have  melted 
away  as  they  have  come  into  contact  with  foreign  races. 
In  1769  it  was  estimated  that  they  numbered  several 
hundred  thousands.  By  the  census  of  1888  they  now 
number  only  42,000,  while  the  foreign  population  of 
New  Zealand  is  607,380. 

The  Europeans  who  first  visited  New  Zealand,  with  a 
few  exceptions,  were  in  character  as  uncouth,  repulsive 
and  terrible  as  the  Maoris  in  physical  appearance.  Some 
of  these  Europeans  were  not  a  little  amused  when  Maoris 
shrank  away  in  horror  on  first  seeing  their  own  likenesses 
reflected  in  looking-glasses,  but  the  abhorrence  they  felt 
for  the  Maori  in  his  paint,  tattoo  and  grotesque  head- 
gear might  well  have  been  felt  for  themselves  in  their 
reckless  avarice,  lust  and  cruelty.  Our  first  accounts  of 
New  Zealand  are  of  wanton  outrages  committed  by  these 
foreigners  on  the  natives,  and  of  dreadful  retaliations 
made  by  the  natives.  The  first  discoverer,  the  Dutch- 

^N 


_  ^a 


364  THE    ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

man  Abel  Tasman,  on  anchoring,  September  18,  1642, 
near  Nelson,  of  the  Middle  Island,  got  into  a  conflict 
with  the  natives  and  killed  several  of  them,  and  they  in 
return  killed  four  of  his  men.  For  this  reason  he  named 
this  port  Massacre  Bay,  but  the  group  he  named  New 
Zealand,  after  his  own  country.  In  1769  Capt.  Cook 
arrived  at  these  islands  and  announced  that  he  took 
possession  of  them  for  Britain.  Three  years  afterwards 
the  French  captain  Marion  du  Fresne  arrived  with  two 
ships  in  the  Bay  of  Islands,  and  because  of  cruel  outra- 
ges committed  by  him  on  chiefs  was  killed,  with  twenty- 
five  of  his  men.  In  1809  the  captain  of  the  British  ship 
Boyd,  having  flogged  a  chief,  was  killed  with  his  crew 
and  passengers,  seventy  in  number.  In  later  times 
escaped  convicts  from  Botany  Bay  led  lives  of  horrible 
lust  and  cruelty  among  the  natives  ;  and  finally,  as  will 
be  more  particularly  recounted  in  another  part  of  this 
chapter,  the  great  British  Colonization  Company  was 
extremely  lawless,  and  occasioned  fierce  and  destructive 
wars. 

One  agency  alone  has  operated  for  the  welfare  of  the 
Maoris  as  well  as  for  that  of  the  foreign  population  of 
New  Zealand  :  the  Missionary  Society.  The  first  mission 
in  New  Zealand  was  originated  by  Rev.  Samuel  Marsden, 
who  in  1792  went  as  chaplain  to  Port  Jackson,  of  the 
penal  colony  of  New  South  Wales.  His  attention  was 
drawn  to  New  Zealand  by  the  Maoris,  who  as  seamen 
occasionally  visited  Port  Jackson  and  greatly  impressed 
him  with  their  superiority  to  the  Papuans.  While  the 
common  cry  was  that  the  Maoris  should  be  extermina- 


NEW   ZEALAND.  365 

ted,  he  built  a  hut  in  his  parsonage  for  their  accommo- 
dation. To  most  of  the  residents  of  Port  Jackson  the 
coming  of  these  Maoris  was  about  as  alarming  as  the 
coming  of  savages  was  to  Robinson  Crusoe ;  and  it  was 
an  exercise  of  no  ordinary  philanthropy  for  Mr.  Marsden 
not  merely  to  treat  them  kindly  when  he  casually  met 
them,  but  to  bring  them  to  occupy  a  home  at  his  very 
door.  He  often  had  as  many  as  thirty  staying  with  him 
at  one  time.  In  1807  he  went  to  England  and  persua- 
ded the  Church  Mission  Society  to  undertake  a  mission 
to  this  people,  and  returned  with  two  missionaries  :  Mr. 
William  Hall,  a  carpenter,  and  Mr.  John  King,  a  shoe- 
maker and  ropemaker.  These  men  were  selected  that 
they  might  teach  the  natives  the  industrial  arts ;  but  it 
was  afterwards  discovered  that  evangelization  must  pre- 
cede civilization. 

As  Mr.  Marsden  with  these  missionaries  embarked 
from  England  on  the  25th  of  August,  1809,  on  the  ship 
Ann,  they  observed  a  Maori  chief,  Ruatara,  sitting  dis- 
consolate, and  evidently  very  ill,  on  the  forecastle  of  the 
ship.  This  chief  had  left  home  as  a  seaman  in  order  to 
see  the  world,  and  had  been  badly  abused  by  captains  of 
ships.  A  short  time  before  he  had  been  put  ashore  with 
a  few  other  men  at  Bounty  Island,  east  of  New  Zealand, 
to  collect  sealskins,  under  the  assurance  that  he  would 
be  taken  off  in  a  few  days,  but  he  was  left  there  ten 
months  ;  and  when  the  faithless  captain  rescued  him 
three  of  his  companions  had  perished  of  starvation.  He 
had  collected  eight  thousand  sealskins,  and  with  these 
was  taken  to  England  and  then  was  turned  adrift.  Mr. 


366  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

Marsden  most  kindly  befriended  him,  and  thereby 
gained  a  kind  reception  for  his  missionaries  in  New  Zea- 
land. 

On  their  arrival  at  Port  Jackson  they  heard  of  the 
massacre  of  the  crew  and  passengers  of  the  Boyd,  and  that 
afterwards  whalers  had  taken  vengeance  on  the  natives. 
Ruatara's  uncle  had  been  killed,  and  a  war  had  thereby 
been  occasioned  between  the  tribes  of  natives.  Ruatara 
therefore  took  passage  on  a  ship  to  investigate  whether 
missionaries  would  be  received  ;  but  the  captain  with 
whom  he  embarked  refused  to  land  him  when  he  was  in 
sight  of  his  home,  and  he  was  tossed  about  in  rough 
seafaring  life  nearly  two  years  before  he  arrived  among 
his  people,  from  whom  he  had  then  been  absent  seven 
years.  The  accounts  he  gave  of  the  wonders  he  had 
seen  in  foreign  lands,  especially  of  horse-riding,  were  too 
much  for  the  belief  of  his  people  ;  but  they  were  per- 
suaded to  send  invitations  for  missionaries  to  reside 
among  them. 

When  at  last  he  returned  to  Port  Jackson  Mr.  Mars- 
den  at  his  own  risk  purchased  a  little  brig,  the  Active, 
for  $10,000,  and  embarked  on  the  28th  of  November, 
1814,  for  New  Zealand  with  three  missionaries  and  their 
wives  and  three  Maori  chiefs,  among  whom  was  this 
Ruatara.  Arriving  off  the  northeast  coast  of  New  Zea- 
land, at  Whangaroa,  within  forty  miles  of  Rangihoua, 
Ruatara's  home,  they  learned  from  natives  in  canoes  that 
there  was  a  feud,  originated  from  the  massacre  of  the 
Boyd,  between  the  natives  of  this  region  and  Ruatara's 
tribe.  Mr.  Marsden  therefore  landed  with  the  chiefs  to 


NEW   ZEALAND.  367 

sue  for  peace,  and  sent  Ruatara  before,  to  a  body  of 
armed  men,  to  apply  for  a  friendly  interview.  A  woman 
then  came  forward  waving  a  red  mat  and  exclaiming, 
' '  Haeremai, "  "  Come  hither  "  (Hawaiian,  Helemai).  In 
compliance  with  this  invitation  they  then  went  forward, 
and  found  the  chiefs  sitting,  with  warriors  holding  spears 
twenty  feet  in  length  standing  around  them.  The  chiefs 
were  dressed  in  handsome  mats,  had  their  hair  tied  in 
top-knots  ornamented  with  long  white  feathers,  and 
wore  around  their  necks  the  dollars  taken  from  the  Boyd. 
The  warriors  now  brandished  their  spears  with  frightful 
yells,  and  sprang  around  Mr.  Marsden  and  his  compan- 
ions in  a  menacing  war-dance  which  was  meant  for  a 
welcome.  Mr.  Marsden  remained  over  night  with  them 
and  persuaded  them  to  make  peace. 

Before  reaching  Ruatara's  home,  which  was  on  the 
northwest  side  of  the  Bay  of  Islands,  one  of  the  chiefs 
went  ashore  to  prepare  for  their  reception  ;  and  as  they 
drew  near  ten  war  canoes  came  off,  and  bore  swiftly 
upon  them,  and  gave  them  a  welcome  of  war-cries, 
shrieks,  and  threatening  gesticulations. 

As  they  landed  on  Sunday,  December  25,  1814,  they 
were  surprised  to  find  that  Ruatara  had  with  great  inge- 
nuity prepared  for  a  religious  meeting.  He  had  enclosed 
about  half  an  acre  of  land  with  a  fence,  erected  in  the 
centre  a  pulpit  covered  with  black  mats,  arranged  canoes 
on  each  side  as  seats  for  the  white  men,  rigged  a  flagstaff, 
and  hoisted  the  British  flag.  Mr.  Marsden  preached 
from  the  text,  "Behold,  I  bring  you  good  tidings  of 
great  joy ;"  and  the  sermon  was  interpreted  by  Ruatara, 


368  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

Mr.  Marsden  had  brought  a  horse,  which  he  now 
took  ashore,  mounted  and  rode,  to  the  utter  astonish- 
ment of  the  natives.  He  had  also  brought  a  grist  mill, 
and  now  ground  some  wheat,  that  had  been  raised  by 
Ruatara,  and  made  flour  and  bread,  and  thereby  con- 
vinced the  natives  that  Ruatara's  reports  of  foreign  lands 
were  true,  and  won  golden  opinions  for  the  mission- 
aries. 

Subsequently  the  missionaries  had  the  usual  expe- 
riences of  missionaries  in  the  Pacific,  of  losses  of  proper- 
ty by  thefts  and  robberies,  lack  of  food,  when  the  natives 
would  take  nothing  but  fire-arms  or  ammunition  as  pay 
for  provisions,  and  perils  from  intertribal  wars.  They 
were  obliged  to  constantly  watch  the  natives  who  came 
to  visit  them  ;  but  ' '  in  spite  of  their  vigilance,  tools, 
ropes,  knives,  wearing  apparel,  blankets,  etc.,  disap- 
peared ;  and  two  volumes  of  Milner's  Church  History 
were  taken  and  converted  into  New  Zealand  cartridges. " 

In  order  to  provide  more  reliable  supplies  of  food 
than  could  be  obtained  from  the  natives  or  from  ships 
they  enclosed  and  cultivated  about  ten  acres  of  land, 
planting  wheat,  barley,  oats  and  vegetables.  They  also 
set  out  fruit  trees,  peaches,  apricots,  oranges  and  lem- 
ons, which  in  a  few  years  bore  abundance  of  fruit ;  and 
they  taught  the  natives  to  do  similar  work  for  them- 
selves. 

As  more  missionaries  were  expected  to  arrive  from 
England  they  explored  the  surrounding  country  to  se- 
lect places  for  new  mission  stations.  Once  in  their  ex- 
peditions they  went  by  boat  up  the  Kerikeri  River  at  a 


NEW  ZEALAND.  369 

time  when  that  river  was  tabued  by  the  kahunga,  priest, 
(Hawaiian,  kahuna).  "The  indignant  natives  dragged 
the  boat  ashore,  plundered  it  of  its  contents,  and  hastily 
swallowed  jams  and  medicines.  The  unpleasant  conse- 
quences convinced  them  that  the  mana,  power,  of  the 
pakeha,  foreigner,  was  too  strong  for  their  gods,  and  that 
the  tabu  did  not  apply  to  the  missionaries." 

In  1819,  at  the  request  of  the  natives,  another  settle- 
ment was  made  nine  miles  distant,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Kerikeri  River,  five  miles  from  its  mouth,  near  a  water- 
fall called  Waiani-waniwa  (rainbow) ;  and  in  August, 
1823,  another  settlement  on  the  south  side  of  the  bay, 
at  Paihia,  "  a  beautiful  spot  of  three  hundred  acres  of 
level  ground  sheltered  in  an  amphitheatre  of  fern- 
clad  and  wooded  hills,  with  a  view  of  the  bay  near 
by,  and  of  three  small  rocky  islands  covered  with  foli- 
age." 

In  1820  the  chief  of  the  Ngapui  tribe,  Hongi  Hika, 
one  of  the  most  formidable  Maori  warriors,  called  the 
"Napoleon  of  New  Zealand,"  went  to  England,  hoping 
to  obtain  weapons  with  which  to  make  himself  monarch 
of  all  New  Zealand.  Though  he  failed  to  obtain  the 
supply  of  weapons  he  wished,  he  started  off,  as  soon  as 
he  returned,  on  war  expeditions,  and  soon  brought  home 
two  thousand  captives,  chiefly  women  and  children,  of 
part  of  whom  he  made  a  cannibal  feast. 

In  1827  he  again  started  on  the  war-path  and  at- 
tacked Whangaroa,  where  the  Wesleyans,  in  1821,  had 
established  a  mission  station  at  Kaeo,  and  where  now 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Turner  and  his  family  were  residing. 


37<D  THE   ISLANDS  OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

As  usual,  he  was  victorious  ;  and  then  he  attacked  the 
Wesleyan  settlement  and  plundered  and  burned  it.  Mr. 
Turner  and  his  wife  and  three  children,  the  youngest  of 
whom  was  five  weeks  old,  fled  in  the  night  through  the 
woods  twenty  miles,  to  Kerikeri,  and  were  met  by  the 
Episcopal  missionary,  Rev.  Henry  Williams,  and  kindly 
cared  for.  Hongi  now  horrified  the  missionaries  at 
Kerikeri  by  cannibal  feasts  in  celebration  of  his  victo- 
ries. 

Soon  afterwards  the  missionaries,  Williams  and  Da- 
vis, boldly  ventured  among  the  warring  tribes  and  per- 
suaded their  chiefs  to  forego  the  usual  exaction  of  uku, 
redress,  and  to  make  peace.  All  the  Methodist  mission- 
aries ha'd  fled  to  New  South  Wales ;  and  now  they  re- 
turned and  resumed  their  work. 

About  this  time  a  beautiful  illustration  was  afforded 
of  the  far-reaching  influence  of  the  Tahiti  mission.  "A 
Christian  chief  from  Tahiti  arrived  at  Kerikeri,  and  as 
his  native  tongue  was  so  similar  to  that  of  the  Maoris  as 
to  allow  of  free  communication  he  readily  acceded  to  the 
request  of  the  missionaries  to  address  their  people.  With 
his  Bible  in  his  hand  this  once  blinded  idolater  stood  be- 
fore the  assembled  group  ;  his  face  beamed  with  love, 
his  voice  trembled  with  emotion,  while  he  read  to  them 
John  3:16  and  17,  and  told  them  of  what  Tahiti  had 
been  and  what  it  now  was.  As  he  spoke  to  them  of 
the  mighty  change  that  had  been  wrought  upon  himself 
and  his  countrymen  every  eye  was  rivetted  on  him  ;  and 
as  he  urged  them  to  turn  to  God,  and  prayed  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  might  lead  them  to  the  Saviour,  the  mission- 


NEW   ZEALAND.  371 

ary  felt  an  earnest  hope  that  his  exhortations  and  pray- 
ers would  be  blessed  and  answered." 

It  was  ten  years  after  the  inception  of  the  mission 
when  the  first  genuine  success  was  realized  in  the  con- 
version of  natives.  One  of  the  first  converts  was  a  slave, 
Dudidudi,  who  made  Christian  confession  on  his  death- 
bed. On  the  23d  of  August,  1830,  the  first  public  adult 
baptism  took  place  when,  at  Paihia,  the  chief  Taiwunga 
and  two  other  natives  were  baptized.  Before  the  end  of 
this  year  thirteen  more  natives  were  received  into  the 
church  at  this  place.  The  people  had  now  generally 
given  up  their  intertribal  wars,  and  were  much  inter- 
ested in  agricultural  pursuits ;  and  the  number  of  Chris- 
tian converts  rapidly  increased.  New  mission  stations 
were  now  formed,  one,  in  1831,  at  Waimate,  twelve  miles 
inland  from  Kerikeri,  another,  in  1834,  at  Kaitaia  on  the 
western  coast,  forty  miles  northwest  from  Waimate,  and 
another  at  Kororaika,  two  miles  from  Paihia. 

The  very  wars  of  the  natives  were  now  found  to  have 
singularly  aided  in  spreading  Christianity.  Thus  a 
Christian  girl,  who  had  been  captured  in  war,  and  con- 
veyed to  Waima  near  Hokianga,  and  made  a  slave  of  the 
chief  Tawai,  who  was  a  fierce  enemy  of  the  Christian 
tribe,  continued  to  repeat  her  prayers  and  catechisms, 
though  her  master  threatened  to  shoot  her  if  she  per- 
sisted, and  thereby  influenced  him  to  accept  Christianity 
and  welcome  missionaries.  Thus  also  three  Christian 
lads,  who  were  taken  captive  to  Puriri  on  the  Thames  at 
the  Bay  of  Islands,  gave  Christian  instruction  to  their 
captors;  and  when  in  October,  1833,  a  company  of 


3/2  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

missionaries,  consisting  of  Rev.  II.  Williams,  Rev.  A.  N. 
Brown,  Mr.  Morgan,  and  Mr.  Fairchild,  on  a  voyage  of 
exploration  up  the  Thames,  landed  at  this  place,  and 
attempted  to  sing  a  hymn  in  a  gathering  of  200  natives, 
the  whole  multitude  to  their  great  surprise  joined  with 
them,  singing  the  words  and  tune  correctly,  and  after- 
wards repeated  in  unison  with  them  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
The  missionaries  now  ascertained  how  these  three  boys 
had  done  missionary  work,  and  they  located  two  mis- 
sionaries here. 

Quite  as  remarkable  was  the  beginning  of  a  mission 
station  through  the  influence  of  wandering  natives  at 
Kapiti,  in  Cook's  Straits  at  the  south  part  of  the  island. 
The  chief  of  this  district,  Rauparaha,  son  of  one  of  the 
most  formidable  warriors,  found  a  prayer-book,  a  cate- 
chism, and  part  of  a  torn  gospel  of  Luke,  in  the  keeping 
of  some  of  his  people,  who  had  visited  the  missionaries 
and  had  been  taught  by  them,  and  with  great  curiosity 
employed  one  of  them  to  read  these  books  to  him.  He 
at  once  accepted  the  truths  of  Christianity  and  led  his 
people  to  do  the  same  ;  and  so  eager  did  he  now  become 
to  gain  instruction  directly  from  the  lips  of  the  white 
men  that  he  took  passage  on  a  ship  to  Waimate  and 
visited  Mr.  Williams  and  applied  for  a  missionary  for  his 
tribe.  Hearing  of  his  request,  Rev.  Octavius  Hadfield 
volunteered  to  go  with  him,  and  soon  afterwards  with 
Mr.  Williams  accompanied  him  to  Kapiti.  They  found 
that  already,  in  their  heathen  darkness,  these  natives  had 
erected,  a  church  lined  with  reeds,  and  were  assembled 
within  to  the  number  of  1,200  to  hear  their  preaching. 


OF  THB 

UNIVERSITY 


NEW    ZEALAND.  375 

Six  months  afterwards  Mr.  Hadfield  baptized  twenty  of 
these  natives,  among  whom  was  Rauparaha  and  another 
chief. 

In  like  manner  an  interest  to  learn  about  Christianity 
was  awakened  at  Otaki  by  a  single  page  of  a  catechism 
that  was  taken  thither  by  a  native.  The  chief  of  this  re- 
gion inquired  what  "the  black  marks"  on  this  page 
meant,  and  found  a  native  who  could  read  them.  The 
page  contained  the  Ten  Commandments.  The  chief  was 
deeply  impressed  by  hearing  them  read,  renounced  his 
false  gods,  commenced  observing  the  Sabbath,  and 
endeavored  to  live  as  God  required.  Not  long  af- 
terwards he  joyfully  received  missionaries.  A  church 
eighty  feet  long,  thirty-six  wide  and  forty  high  was 
now  built  here.  Its  principal  beam  was  dragged 
twelve  miles,  from  the  depth  of  the  forest — the  choicest 
tree  there. 

With  these  successes  there  were  distressing  discour- 
agements. The  unprincipled  crews  of  ships  repeatedly 
committed  outrages  on  the  natives  and  caused  fierce 
intertribal  wars  ;  the  dissolute  white  men  living  in  New 
Zealand  warned  the  natives  that  the  design  of  the  mis- 
sionaries was  to  take  them  as  slaves  to  England,  and 
thereby  for  a  while  estranged  some  of  the  chiefs  from  the 
missionaries  ;  and  when  at  length,  in  1838,  the  mission 
work  had  made  residence  in  New  Zealand  safe  and 
delightful  a  Romish  bishop  and  his  priests  arrived, 
"following  the  missionaries  like  spirits  of  evil,  and 
spared  neither  pains  nor  money  to  make  proselytes." 
Their  influence  was  more  seriously  exerted  afterwards, 


376  THE  ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

during  the  war  against  the  English  government  in  excit- 
ing rebellion  and  attacks  upon  the  missionaries. 

But,  in  spite  of  these  difficulties,  by  the  year  1845 
nearly  all  the  tribes  of  New  Zealand  had  renounced  idol- 
atry and  accepted  Christianity.  Schools  and  churches 
had  been  established  in  every  district  and  several  col- 
legiate institutions  organized  for  Riving  the  natives  high 
education  ;  and  agriculture,  the  care  of  flocks  and  herds, 
and  other  peaceful  industries,  were  taking  the  place  of 
war,  pagan  carousals,  and  cannibalism. 

And  now  occurred  the  unhappy  civil  war,  that  for 
a  while  paralyzed  the  mission  enterprise,  and  occasioned 
the  destruction  of  multitudes  of  the  Maoris  as  well  as  of 
British  colonists  ;  after  which  there  was  a  rapid  settle- 
ment of  the  country  by  foreigners,  till  now  the  few 
remaining  Maoris  are  almost  lost  to  view  in  the  great 
population  of  Anglo  Saxons.  A  brief  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  British  Colony  and  of  this  war  is  necessary, 
to  show  how  different  were  the  operations  of  the  mission 
from  those  of  a  mercenary  society,  and  how  the  mission 
ever  worked  for  the  welfare  of  the  natives  as  well  as  for 
that  of  the  foreign  population. 

In  1825  a  company  was  formed  in  England  by  Lord 
Durham  to  buy  land  in  New  Zealand  and  send  settlers 
thither.  The  missionaries  warned  the  British  govern- 
ment against  giving  this  company  a  charter,  lest  it  should 
trample  on  the  rights  of  the  natives  ;  and  no  charter  was 
given  till  1839.  This  company,  failing  to  receive  a 
charter,  undertook  colonization  in  defiance  of  the 
Crown,  and  sold  New  Zealand  land  by  lottery  in  Eng- 


NEW   ZEALAND.  377 

land  to  the  value  of  $500,000,  and  sent  ships  loaded 
with  emigrants  to  New  Zealand.  But  it  soon  was  real- 
ized that  some  governing  power  was  necessary  for  the 
colony ;  and  therefore,  before  leaving  England,  the  emi- 
grants entered  into  a  mutual  compact  for  their  govern- 
ment. But  they  were  warned  by  the  English  court  that 
in  so  doing  they  were  usurping  the  functions  of  the 
British  Crown  and  were  liable  to  arrest.  To  obviate 
this  difficulty,  on  arriving  at  Port  Nicholson  they  called 
together  the  native  chiefs,  and  went  through  the  form  of 
having  them  adopt  their  Contract  of  Government. 

All  now  went  well  for  a  while.  ' '  The  natives  were 
delighted  to  have  the  pakehas,  foreigners,  among  them  ; 
for  the  pakehas  were  good  traders,  and  brought  utensils, 
clothes,  guns,  and  gun-powder,  for  which  the  natives 
exchanged  flax,  kauri-gum,  and  whale  and  seal  oil." 
But  presently  the  natives  asserted  their  rights  to  the 
lands  on  which  the  colonists  settled,  and  "which  the 
New  Zealand  Company  had  bought,  with  guns,  looking- 
glasses,  shaving-brushes  and  pocket-handkerchiefs,  of 
chiefs  who  had  no  authority  to  sell  and  did  not  under- 
stand the  sale."  The  settlers,  being  ignorant  of  native 
law  of  property,  viewed  these  claims  as  mere  pretexts  for 
extortion  and  violence,  but  were  driven  by  the  natives  to 
a  narrow  tract  of  land  of  the  projected  town  of  Welling- 
ton. 

And  now  by  suggestion  of  the  missionaries  the  British 
government  interposed  to  adjust  these  difficulties,  and  in 
1839  proclaimed  New  Zealand  a  part  of  the  colony  of 
New  South  Wales,  and  sent  thither  Capt.  Hobson  as 


3/8  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

lieutenant  governor,  there  being  then  1,000  Europeans 
in  New  Zealand. 

In  1840  Capt.  Hobson  collected  forty-six  Maori 
chiefs  at  Waitangi,  on  the  Bay  of  Islands,  and  proposed 
a  treaty  by  which  it  would  be  stipulated  that  the  natives 
owed  allegiance  to  the  British  queen ;  that  the  natives 
owned  the  land,  and  that  the  queen  would  protect  the 
natives.  Some  Romish  priests  made  great  efforts  to 
prevent  the  chiefs  from  signing  this  treaty,  but  the  mis- 
sionaries advised  them  to  sign  it ;  and  in  confidence  in 
the  missionaries  they  finally  did  so,  in  February,  1840, 
and  thus  New  Zealand  became  a  British  province. 

The  chiefs  however  did  not  realize  that  in  ceding 
their  sovereignty  to  England  they  thereby  gave  power  to 
abrogate  their  own  customs,  to  impose  new  laws,  and  to 
determine  the  ownership  of  their  lands.  When  therefore 
the  new  government  proceeded  to  try  criminals  in 
British  courts,  and  to  impose  tariffs  on  articles  of  com- 
merce, and  the  settlers  demanded  the  lands  which  they 
claimed  by  purchase  from  the  New  Zealand  Company, 
the  natives  were  excited  to  resist. 

The  New  Zealand  Company  claimed  to  have  bought 
of  the  natives  20,000,000  acres  ;  nearly  one-third  of  New 
Zealand.  The  settlers  now  urged  the  government  to  ap- 
propriate the  waste  lands  of  the  country  and  provide 
them  with  homesteads.  But  the  natives  regarded  no 
lands  as  waste,  claiming  the  forests  for  their  birds  and 
the  swamps  and  streams  for  their  fish,  and  they  carefully 
handed  down  titles  for  this  land  from  father  to  son.  The 
British  government  refused  to  break  faith  with  the  natives 


NEW   ZEALAND.  379 

by  violating  the  treaty  of  Waitangi,  and  therefore  appoint- 
ed a  commission  to  examine  the  documents  of  purchase 
of  land  held  by  the  New  Zealand  Company,  and  soon 
the  possessions  of  that  company  were  reduced  to  282,000 
acres.  The  natives  contested  this  decision,  and  a  further 
reduction  was  made  to  3, 500  acres. 

And  now,  to  prevent  such  a  settlement  as  this,  the 
New  Zealand  Company  precipitated  a  conflict  with  the 
natives  that  would  have  been  prevented  if  the  processes 
of  the  government  had  not  been  interrupted.  In  July, 
1843,  this  company  sent  surveyors  to  lay  out  tracts  of 
1 50  acres  for  immigrants  in  the  South  Island  at  Wairau 
Valley,  in  Cloudy  Bay  District,  seventy  miles  from  Nel- 
son. The  natives  protested  against  this  appropriation  of 
their  lands  without  the  action  of  the  courts,  and  sent 
their  women  to  pull  up  the  surveyors'  stakes  and  flags 
and  to  cut  their  chain.  Two  powerful  chiefs  of  this  re- 
gion, Rauparaha  and  Rangiata,  now  went  to  Porirua,  on 
the  north  side  of  Cook's  Strait,  and  urged  the  land  com- 
missioner, Mr.  Spain,  to  settle  the  dispute,  and  he 
agreed  to  do  so  in  a  few  months.  They  then  returned  to 
Cloudy  Bay  and  ordered  the  surveyors  to  leave,  and 
burned  their  hut.  The  surveyors  reported  their  conduct 
at  Nelson  ;  and  the  police  magistrate,  Mr.  Thompson, 
issued  a  warrant  for  their  arrest  for  burning  the  hut,  and 
with  a  company  of  soldiers  went  to  enforce  the  warrant. 
The  chiefs  insisted  on  deferring  these  matters  of  dispute 
to  the  coming  of  Mr.  Spain  ;  whereupon  Mr.  Thompson 
threatened  to  fire  on  them  if  they  persisted  in  refusing  to 
surrender  themselves  in  arrest,  and  ordered  his  troops  to 


380  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

fix  bayonets  and  advance.  Shots  were  then  fired  by  the 
troops,  and  the  wife  of  the  chief  Rangiata  was  killed. 
The  natives  then  rushed  upon  the  Europeans,  and  the 
most  of  these  turned  in  flight,  while  a  few  of  them  re- 
mained, throwing  down  their  arms  and  urging  that  there 
should  be  no  battle.  But  Rangiata  was  enraged  at  the 
murder  of  his  wife  and  called  for  vengeance ;  and  then 
the  natives  killed  twenty-four  of  the  Europeans  and 
wounded  four  more,  while  four  of  their  own  number 
were  killed.  This  began  the  destructive  wars  between 
the  Maoris  and  the  English  in  New  Zealand. 

Ten  years  after  this  event  a  committee  of  the  New 
Zealand  House  of  Representatives  reported  that  the  con- 
duct of  the  New  Zealand  Company  on  this  occasion,  in 
thrusting  forward  its  surveyors  regardless  of  the  courts 
and  forcing  this  affray,  was  the  cause  of  the  war  in  New 
Zealand.  Rev.  Richard  Taylor  has  remarked  that  "this 
war  began  for  nothing  which  an  ordinary  law  court  could 
not  have  decided — the  question  whether  one  party  had  a 
right  to  what  the  other  wanted  to  buy  or  not. " 

The  massacre  of  the  British  in  this  affray  sent  a  thrill 
of  horror  through  Europe.  The  enlistment  of  emigrants 
for  New  Zealand  now  ceased.  The  newspapers  of  Paris 
even  proposed  that,  instead  of  sending  out  more  settlers, 
they  should  raise  benevolent  contributions  to  bring  back 
to  England  those  then  remaining  in  New  Zealand.  The 
missionaries  were  compromised  by  this  affray,  as  well  as 
by  all  the  subsequent  wars,  since  they  had  advised  acqui- 
escence in  the  treaty  propositions  of  England  ;  and  noth- 
ing but  the  confidence  of  the  natives  in  their  integrity 


NEW   ZEALAND.  381 

saved  them  from  serious  trouble,  while  their  work  was 
sadly  interrupted. 

From  the  conduct  of  the  British  soldiers  in  this  affray 
the  natives  formed  a  low  estimate  of  their  prowess,  and 
afterwards  did  not  hesitate  to  assert  their  rights  by  force. 
Immediately  after  this  fight  at  Wairau  the  two  chiefs 
crossed  over  to  the  North  Island  and  prepared  to  attack 
the  settlement  at  Wellington.  There  were  no  troops  at 
that  time  at  Wellington,  nor  could  any  be  obtained  under 
a  month  from  Auckland,  five  hundred  miles  distant.  The 
chiefs  refused  to  grant  an  armistice,  and  only  by  the  in- 
fluence of  the  missionary,  Rev.  Octavius  Hadfield,  of 
Kapiti,  were  dissuaded  from  destroying  the  community 
of  Wellington. 

So  bitter  did  the  natives  now  become  against  the 
British,  because  of  their  claims  for  land  and  because  of 
tariffs  imposed  on  articles  of  commerce,  that  one  of  their 
chiefs,  John  Heke,  three  times  cut  down  the  British  flag- 
staff at  Kororeka  in  the  Bay  of  Islands,  the  last  time  with 
a  battle  in  which  the  British  troops  were  obliged  to  flee 
to  their  ships.  The  governor  now  sent  troops  against 
Heke  and  his  followers  ;  many  tribes  combined  with 
Heke  and  a  few  with  the  British,  and  thus  the  war  ex- 
tended over  nearly  all  New  Zealand. 

In  June,  1848,  the  natives  chose  one  of  their  num- 
ber, the  head  chief  of  Waikato,  Te  Wherowero,  as  king, 
under  the  title  Potatau  I.  In  proclaiming  him  king 
they  raised  a  flag  of  a  cross,  three  stars,  and  the  name  of 
the  country,  Niu  Tirini,  in  the  centre,  read  a  chapter  of 
the  New  Testament,  offered  prayer,  and  fired  volleys  of 


382  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

musketry.  Under  this  king  they  entered  into  a  league  to 
sell  no  land  to  the  white  people ;  ' '  to  prevent  the  run- 
ning off  of  the  fresh  water  into  the  salt."  They  an- 
nounced as  their  sentiment,  "The  king  on  his  land,  the 
queen  on  her  land,  God  over  both,  and  love  binding 
them  together."  They  wrote  to  the  governor  advising 
that  all  the  forces  engaged  in  the  war  should  be  dis- 
banded and  the  difficulties  arbitrated  by  the  queen  ; 
but  the  advice  was  rejected. 

A  small  portion  of  the  natives  now  formed  a  religious 
sect  which  was  called  by  the  white  people  "  Hauhaus  " 
from  the  resemblance  of  its  noise  to  the  barking  of  dogs, 
and  by  the  natives  Pai-mariri.  It  was  allied  with  the 
Roman-catholics,  and  its  chief  idea  was  hostility  to  the 
British  and  to  Protestantism.  Its  worship  consisted  in 
the  practice  of  mesmerism,  in  dancing  around  a  pole, 
and  calling  on  the  Virgin  Mary.  At  the  instigation  of 
the  Roman  priests  its  members  burned  Bibles  and  mur- 
dered the  Protestant  missionary,  Rev.  Mr.  Volkner,  and 
placed  his  head  on  the  pulpit  of  the  papal  church. 

The  natives  fought  against  the  British  with  great 
bravery  and  skill,  in  fortifications  called  pahs,  which 
were  surrounded  with  palisades,  and  inside  the  palisades 
with  a  deep  ditch,  in  which  they  were  able  to  avoid  bul- 
lets. When  defeated  they  simply  retreated  to  other 
pahs,  and  surrendered  only  at  last  when  driven  to  the 
end  of  the  valleys  and  almost  exterminated.  Repeat- 
edly they  repulsed  many  times  their  number  of  British 
troops. 

Three  wars  were  waged,  each  on  account  of  claims 


OF  THK 

UNIVERSITY 


NEW   ZEALAND.  385 

for  land  ;  and  finally,  in  1860,  through  the  mediation  of 
the  missionaries,  peace  was  established.  Ten  thousand 
British  soldiers  were  engaged  in  these  wars,  and  one- 
third  of  them  were  killed.  The  cost  of  these  wars  was 
$60,000,000. 

After  these  wars  the  government  confiscated  4,000,- 
ooo  acres  of  the  Maoris'.  Governor  Gray  then  forced  a 
measure  through  the  New  Zealand  Parliament  for  paying 
the  New  Zealand  Company  $1,000,000  for  a  surrender  of 
its  charter.  This  payment  and  the  expenses  of  the  war 
brought  a  heavy  burden  of  taxation  on  the  colony ;  and 
this  burden  was  subsequently  increased  by  loans  of 
$95,000,000  procured  from  the  Bank  of  England  at  four 
per  cent,  for  building  railroads,  telegraphs,  and  other 
public  works,  for  purchasing  land,  and  for  aiding  immi- 
gration. In  1883  the  gross  debt  was  $151,785,555. 

In  1852  the  British  government  set  off  New  Zealand 
as  a  separate  colony  from  New  South  Wales,  and  divided 
it  into  six  districts — viz.,  Auckland,  Taranaki,  Welling- 
ton, Nelson,  Canterbury  and  Otago — and  gave  it  a  Con- 
stitution of  government.  This  Constitution  provided  for 
a  governor  appointed  by  the  Crown,  a  legislative  council 
of  members  appointive  for  life  as  lords  by  the  governor, 
a  house  of  representatives  elective  by  the  people  voting 
on  a  small  property  qualification,  a  cabinet  of  ministers 
appointive  by  the  governor  but  removable  by  the  house 
of  representatives  by  a  vote  of  want  of  confidence,  and 
the  government  by  each  district  of  its  own  local  affairs. 
It  has  been  the  aim  of  the  British  government  to  govern 
the  Maoris  in  a  paternal  way,  as  they  are  unfit  for  exer- 


386  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

cising  the  elective  franchise  with  advantage  to  themselves 
or  to  the  country  at  large.  They  are  allowed  a  repre- 
sentation of  four  members  in  the  house  of  represent- 
atives. 

Since  the  termination  of  the  wars  the  mission  has 
prospered,  schools  and  churches  have  been  multiplied, 
the  Maoris  have  largely  entered  into  the  peaceful  occupa- 
tions of  civilization,  and  have  advanced  from  accepting 
Christianity  to  conveying  it  with  marvellous  heroism  to 
the  Solomon  and  Santa  Cruz  Islands.  Forty-eight  Maori 
clergymen  have  been  ordained,  and  the  church  members 
now  number  more  than  18,000.  Their  decadence  in 
population,  which  without  the  influence  of  missions 
would  have  resulted  almost  in  their  extinction,  has  been 
checked,  and  now  they  are  actually  increasing  in  num- 
bers. Their  race  is  gradually  blending  with  the  white 
races ;  and  it  seems  probable  that  at  some  future  time 
their  lineage  will  be  discernible  only  by  a  more  tropical 
hue  in  their  complexion  and  a  deeper  black  in  their  hair 
and  eyes,  and  a  pure-blooded  Maori  will  be  as  hard  to 
find  as  the  wingless  moa-birds  of  yore. 

The  great  foreign  population  of  600,000  people  in 
New  Zealand  is  now  a  prosperous  Christian  community. 
Notwithstanding  its  vast  burdens  of  debt  it  is  developing 
more  wealth  than  is  needed  for  its  obligations.  The 
last  report  of  the  Premier,  Mr.  Richard  Sedden,  is  that 
"  its  financial  position  is  impregnable  ;  that  the  estimate 
of  revenue  for  the  current  year  has  thus  far  been  ex- 
ceeded by  actual  receipts,  while  the  expenditure  is  be- 
ing kept  within  the  appropriation  and  the  estimated 


NEW   ZEALAND.  387 

surplus  of  the  year  will  be  fully  realized  ;  that  there  is 
plenty  of  money  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  colony, 
and  no  further  loans  should  be  made." 

The  statistics  of  the  industries  of  New  Zealand  con- 
firm this  statement.  The  yield  of  gold  from  1859  to 
1893  was  worth  $250,000,000;  the  number  of  frozen 
sheep  exported  to  London  during  the  last  ten  years  was 
13,000,000;  the  value  of  butter  exported  in  1893  was 
$3,062,780,  the  number  of  fine-graded  sheep  in  the 
colony  is  now  20,000,000;  during  the  year  1883  the 
total  value  of  the  exports  was  $30,607,235,  and  of  the 
imports  $43,046,350,  indicating  a  commerce  worth 
over  $70,000,000.  The  population  is  steadily  increas- 
ing. Already  the  chief  cities  have  populations  as  fol- 
lows :  Auckland,  60,000,  Dunedin,  90,000,  Wellington, 
the  capital,  40,000,  and  Christchurch  30,000. 

The  people  of  New  Zealand  are  also  making  remark- 
able progress  in  social  and  political  reforms.  They  have 
arranged  to  prevent,  or  settle,  their  struggles  between 
labor  and  capital  by  compulsory  arbitration  ;  to  provide 
their  poorer  classes  with  work  at  fairly  good  wages  in 
construction  of  government  roads  and  other  public  im- 
provements ;  to  make  their  railroads  the  property  of 
their  government,  and  thus  reduce  the  cost  of  freight 
and  travel  as  low  as  possible  ;  they  employ  commissions 
to  determine  the  construction  of  new  roads  and  to  take 
direction  of  such  work,  forbid  large  acquisitions  of  land, 
a  little  over  600  acres  being  the  largest  area  hereafter  to 
be  sold  to  any  one  person  ;  assess  taxes  only  on  lands 
and  incomes,  limit  suffrage  by  property  and  educational 


388  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

qualifications,  and  permit  it  to  women  as  well  as  men  ; 
and  thus  are  making  experiments  in  social  and  political 
methods  that  may  well  be  watched  with  close  attention 
by  the  older  nations  on  our  side  of  the  globe. 

This  people  at  our  antipodes  are  also  developing  as 
remarkably  in  intelligence,  culture  and  character  as  in 
outward  prosperity.  Consisting  chiefly  of  the  best 
classes  of  English  and  Scotch  emigrants,  they  are  the 
best  of  Great  Britain's  colonies,  and  seem  destined  to 
have  a  great  future  importance  beside  the  advancing 
empires  of  Australia  and  Asia,  in  intercourse  with  the 
beautiful  island  world  of  the  Pacific,  and  in  the  world- 
embracing  lines  of  commerce. 

All  this  special  growth  and  promise  is  to  be  at- 
tributed to  the  influence  of  Christian  missions.  It  may 
be  said  that  missionaries  made  the  colonization  of  New 
Zealand  possible,  and  secured  New  Zealand  to  Great 
Britain.  Until  they  went  unarmed  among  the  warring 
savages,  whose  only  intercourse  with  foreigners  had  been 
to  kill  or  to  be  killed,  and  caused  them  to  break  their 
spears  and  cast  away  their  clubs,  adopt  peaceful  industries 
and  accept  heavenly  rules  of  conduct,  hardl}7  a  single  Eng- 
lishman dared  to  make  his  home  in  New  Zealand.  When, 
afterwards,  war  broke  out,  they  caused  it  to  be  less  bar- 
barous than  it  would  have  been  by  the  ancient  customs, 
and  went  in  and  out  among  the  contending  armies  and 
arranged  for  peace.  Their  influence  was  also  to  devel- 
op a  Christian  character  of  the  whole  foreign  population 
of  this  country.  Without  their  influence  the  coming  of 
white  men  would  have  been  like  the  beating  of  the  icy 


NEW    ZEALAND.  389 

waters  and  wild  storms  of  the  Antarctic  zone  on  its 
shores  ;  but  amidst  the  destructive  conduct  of  the  reck- 
less classes  of  men  their  influence  was  rather  like  the 
warm  breezes  that  bring  refreshing  showers  from  the 
Tropics.  And  now  the  hope  for  the  future  of  this  coun- 
try is  not  so  much  in  its  amazing  resources,  nor  in  its 
vast  commercial  relations,  nor  even  in  its  noble  civiliza- 
tion, as  in  the  character  implanted  by  Christian  missions, 
which,  like  the  inner  life  of  the  gorgeous  trees  that  adorn 
its  coasts,  must  rise  into  a  glorious  future  bloom  and 
fruitage. 


3QO  THE  ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

THE    FIJI    ISLANDS. 

THREE  hundred  miles  west  of  the  Tongas,  and  the 
same  distance  south  of  the  Samoas,  are  250  islands,  some 
of  them,  mere  islets  of  coralline  formation,  appearing 
like  groves  of  cocoanuts  rising  out  of  the  ocean,  others 
mountainous,  with  summits  5,000  feet  in  height,  as  at- 
tractive with  perennial  verdure  and  picturesque  forms 
of  vale  and  precipice  and  peak  as  any  islands  in  the 
Pacific.  They  are  the  Fiji,  or  Viti,  group.  They  con- 
sist of  the  Lau,  or  Windward  Islands,  which  are  a  chain 
of  small  fertile  islands  on  the  east ;  the  Loma-i-viti,  or 
Inner  Fiji,  which  are  the  islands  west  of  the  Lau,  togeth- 
er with  Viti-Levu  and  Vanua-Levu ;  and  the  Ra,  or  Lee- 
ward Islands,  which  are  the  islands  further  west. 

In  the  Lau  cluster  the  largest  island  is  Lakemba, 
which  is  only  six  miles  in  diameter,  and  is  described  as 
of  surpassing  beauty.  Near  by  it  is  Matuka,  which  is 
"eminent  for  loveliness  where  all  are  lovely  ;"  also  Vul- 
anga,  which  has  a  lagoon  studded  with  islets. 

Among  the  Inner  Fiji  is  the  island  Taviuni,  twenty- 
five  miles  long,  with  a  mountain  2,100  feet  high,  at  the 
summit  of  which  is  a  lake  in  an  extinct  crater.  This 
island  has  been  called  "  The  Garden  of  Fiji,-"  so  covered 
is  it  "with  luxuriance  and  beauty  beyond  the  concep- 
tion of  the  most  glowing  imagination."  The  foliage 


THE   FIJI    ISLANDS.  393 

is  described  as  "like  a  succession  of  green  waterfalls;" 
for  white,  blue  and  pink  convolvuli  most  richly  over- 
spread its  trees,  ferns  and  shrubbery.  (Miss  Gumming). 

In  the  western  part  of  this  group  is  Viti-Levu  (Great 
Fiji),  the  largest  of  the  Fijis,  fifty  by  ninety  miles,  with 
mountains  5,000  feet  high  ;  and  further  south  Vanua- 
Levu  (the  Great  Land),  twenty-five  by  a  hundred  miles, 
on  the  eastern  coast  of  which  is  the  small  island,  Mbau, 
which  was  formerly  the  capital  of  the  group.  Mbau  is 
about  a  mile  long  and  100  feet  high,  and  connected 
with  Vanua-Levu  by  a  long  flat  of  coral,  which  is  forda- 
ble  at  high  tide  and  bare  at  low  tide.  On  Vanua-Levu, 
a  little  southwest  of  Mbau,  is  the  river  Rewa,  which  is 
navigable  sixty  miles,  and  flows  into  the  ocean  by  many 
mouths,  making  a  fertile  delta  of  twenty  square  miles. 
Along  its  shores  are  extensive  sugar  plantations.  The 
total  area  of  the  Fiji  Islands  is  7,400  square  miles. 

To  one  coming  from  the  northern  islands  of  the 
Pacific  there  is  much  that  is  new  in  the  fauna  of  the  Fiji 
Islands.  It  is  interesting  to  find  here  ten  varieties  of 
harmless  snakes,  some  of  which  are  from  four  to  six  feet 
long  and  are  used  by  the  natives  for  food  ;  also  flying- 
foxes  (bats  :  nopteris  Macdonaldii)  which  measure  nearly 
a  yard  from  tip  to  tip  of  their  wings,  and  chameleons 
(chloroscartes  fasciculus)  two  feet  long,  which  inhabit 
trees,  and  (jogs  that  abound  in  the  swamps ;  also  fireflies, 
and  robber-crabs  (birgos  latro) ,  which  climb  cocoanut 
trees  and  devour  their  nuts. 

The  Fiji  Islands  occupy  the  extreme  limits  of  the 
Malayo-Polynesian  territory  on  the  east  and  of  the  Pa- 
18 


394  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

puan  on  the  west.  The  natives  are  therefore  a  mixed 
race,  part  Polynesian  and  part  Papuan  ;  a  fine  people, 
hardly  inferior  to  the  Tongans  and  Samoans  and  much 
superior  to  the  Papuans. 

The  mission  history  of  the  Fijis  is  a  picture  of  the 
brightest  light  shining  in  the  deepest  darkness.  To  ap- 
preciate it  we  need  to  observe  how  deep  was  the  primitive 
darkness.  While  all  the  aborigines  of  the  Pacific  were 
barbarous  the  Fijis  were  superlatively  bad.  "The  very 
name  Fiji  has  become  a  synonym  for  whatever  is  bar- 
barous, inhuman  and  cannibalistic."  A  full  description 
of  the  former  condition  of  the  Fijis  cannot  and  ought 
not  to  be  given.  The  missionaries  who  labored  among 
them  have  remarked  that  they  saw  scenes  ' '  too  horri- 
ble to  be  described,  too  full  of  fiendish  cruelty  to  be 
imagined  ;  that  the  Fiji,  going  beyond  the  ordinary  lim- 
its of  rapine  and  bloodshed,  and  violating  the  elementa- 
ry instincts  of  mankind,  stood  unrivalled  as  a  disgrace 
to  mankind. " 

Looking  at  the  fascinating  beauty  of  these  islands 
with  their  plumed  and  garlanded  vegetation,  it  is  hard  to 
realize  that  in  them  was  about  the  worst  barbarism  known 
in  the  world  ;  nor  is  it  easier  to  realize  that  human 
nature,  with  its  capacity  for  angelic  loveliness  and  divine 
fellowship,  could  have  sunk  so  low.  It  would  seem  that 
with  the  darker  shade  of  complexion  acquired  in  min- 
gling with  Papuan  stock  this  race  had  also  obtained  a 
darker  character.  Here  infanticide  was  more  common 
and  more  heartless  than  in  the  islands  further  east.  The 
early  missionaries  have  testified  that  not  less  than  two- 


THE   FIJI   ISLANDS.  395 

thirds  of  the  children  were  put  to  death.  Especially 
were  female  children  killed.  "Why  should  the  girl 
live  ?  "  they  would  say.  ' '  She  cannot  poise  the  spear, 
she  cannot  wield  the  club."  A  mother  would  often 
strangle  her  own  child,  with  one  hand  holding  the 
nostrils  and  the  other  holding  the  mouth,  and  then 
herself  dig  the  grave  and  bury  the  child. 

Here,  too,  with  as  pitiless  brutality,  the  infirm,  the 
sick  and  the  aged  were  put  to  death.  A  few  illustra- 
tions will  be  sufficient  to  show  the  barbarity  of  these 
and  other  practices  of  this  people.  Chief  Ratu  Varani 
once  had  a  grave  dug  for  a  girl  who  had  long  been 
somewhat  unwell.  Hearing  the  exclamations  of  the 
workmen  the  girl  went  out  of  the  house  to  see  what 
was  going  on,  when  she  was  seized  and  thrown  into 
the  grave,  and  in  spite  of  her  cries,  ' '  Do  not  bury  me ; 
I  am  quite  well  now,"  trodden  down  and  buried  alive. 
Strange  to  say  this  cruelty  was  practiced  even  on  the 
chiefs  themselves.  The  missionary,  Rev.  Thomas  Wil- 
liams, hearing  that  king  Tuithaku,  of  Taviuni,  had  died, 
hastened  to  his  house  to  prevent  the  cruelties  usually 
practiced  on  such  occasions,  and  was  surprised  to  find 
him  alive.  "My  father  is  dead,"  said  the  king's  son. 
"His  soul  has  gone  out  of  him,  and  he  moves  only 
unconsciously."  The  king  was  then  taken,  stripped 
of  his  robes  and  buried  alive.  So  generally  were  the 
sick  put  to  death  that  few  people  died  natural  deaths 
and  few  attained  to  old  age. 

Unnecessary  cruelties  were  also  practiced  in  the  ordi- 
nary affairs  of  life.  When  a  chief's  house  was  to  be 


396  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

built  men  were  placed  in  the  pestholes,  clasping  the 
posts,  and  there  buried.  At  the  launching  of  a  canoe 
men  were  used  as  rollers,  and  over  them  the  canoe  was 
dragged,  and  afterwards  their  bodies  were  eaten. 

Another  revolting  custom  was  the  strangling  of 
widows  after  the  death  of  their  husbands.  This  was  a 
matter  of  pride  to  their  relatives,  and  was  sought  by  the 
widows  themselves,  because  of  the  insults,  the  neglect 
and  the  cruelty  to  which  they  would  be  subjected  if  they 
survived  their  husbands.  It  was  the  privilege  of  the 
oldest  son  to  take  the  lead  in  strangling  his  mother  at 
the  death  of  his  father.  When  chief  Rambethi  was  lost 
at  sea  seventeen  of  his  wives  were  killed.  When,  in 
1839,  tne  army  of  Viva  was  defeated  eighty  women  were 
strangled. 

But  the  worst  horror  of  ancient  Fiji  was  cannibalism. 
In  almost  all  ages  and  countries  this  inhuman  practice 
has  been  known.  Historians  relate  that  in  ancient 
Scythia,  in  India,  and  even  among  our  ancestors  in 
Britain,  anthropophagi  were  to  be  found.  Columbus 
found  them  among  the  Caribees ;  and  from  the  name 
Caribee  the  term  cannibal  was  derived.  Henry  M. 
Stanley  and  other  travellers  tell  how  the  tribes  dwelling 
along  the  Congo  seek  human  flesh,  because  of  scarcity 
of  food,  and  delight  in  obtaining  ' '  long  hogs, "  human 
victims,  just  as  hunters  delight  to  secure  deer,  antelope 
and  other  animals  for  food.  On  many  islands  of  the 
Pacific,  as  in  Hawaii,  cannibalism  was  almost  unknown  ; 
in  some  of  the  Pacific  Islands  it  was  practiced  only  in 
times  of  famine  and  in  war ;  but  in  the  Fiji  Islands  it 


THE   FIJI   ISLANDS.  397 

prevailed  to  an  extent  and  with  horrors  unsurpassed 
elsewhere  in  the  world.  The  Fijis  ate  human  flesh 
chiefly  from  the  love  of  it.  They  ate  it  also  in  the  fury 
of  hatred,  to  show  vengeance  and  to  excite  terror  in  their 
enemies,  and  were  confirmed  in  the  practice  by  their 
religion,  supposing  that  the  gods  to  whom  they  offered 
victims  in  sacrifices  devoured  the  spirits  of  the  victims, 
while  they  themselves  ate  the  bodies.  They  declared 
that  human  flesh  was  more  palatable  than  pork  ;  though 
the  flesh  of  foreigners  was  often  found  to  be  too  strong- 
ly flavored  with  salt  and  tobacco  to  be  agreeable.  The 
shipwrecked,  and  those  slain  in  war,  or  executed  for  any 
cause  by  order  of  the  chiefs,  were  invariably  eaten.  On 
the  occasions  of  high  hospitalities  to  visiting  chiefs,  and 
in  almost  all  festivities,  human  flesh  was  considered 
essential  for  banquets.  The  missionaries  tell  how  the 
king  Tanoa,  of  Mbau,  was  accustomed  to  return  from 
tributary  islands  with  bodies  of  infants  hanging  from 
the  yard-arms  of  his  canoe,  as  tribute  exacted  for  food 
from  their  parents.  They  tell  a  ghoulish  story,  how 
once  at  Na  Ruwai  a  man  by  the  name  of  Loti  had  his 
wife  help  him  plant  taro,  fetch  wood  for  an  oven  and  a 
bamboo  knife,  which  she  cheerfully  did,  and  then  killed, 
cooked  and  ate  her.  Twenty-eight  persons  were  once 
seized  while  fishing,  and  merely  stunned,  and  then 
thrown  into  an  oven;  some  of  them  recovered  and 
endeavored  to  escape,  but  were  driven  back  upon  the 
red  hot  stones.  A  chief,  Ra  Undreundre,  registered  the 
number  of  the  bodies  he  ate  by  stones  set  up  on  end. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Lythe  counted  872  of  these  stones. 


THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

There  was  no  excuse  for  cannibalism.  The  land 
could  have  been  made  to  sustain  more  than  twice  its 
population.  Heathenism  had  simply  made  the  Fijis 
fiends. 

The  evangelization  of  the  Fijis  resulted  partly,  in  a 
striking  way,  from  that  of  Tahiti.  Like  the  ripples  in  a 
still  pool,  that  run  to  its  furthest  shores,  the  influences  of 
the  gospel  triumphs  in  Tahiti  extended  even  to  this 
group,  and  caused  remarkable  results  in  the  little  island 
of  Ono,  which  is  situated  1 50  miles  south  of  Lakemba. 
A  frightful  epidemic  prevailed  in  this  island  in  the  year 
1835,  and  the  natives  in  vain  made  extraordinary  offer- 
ings to  their  gods  to  obtain  relief.  At  that  time  an  Ono 
chief  visited  Lakemba,  and  learned  from  a  Fiji  chief, 
who  had  visited  Tahiti,  that  the  only  true  God  was  Jeho- 
vah, and  that  one  day  in  seven  should  be  observed  in  his 
worship.  Returning  home  with  this  little  spark  of  truth 
he  persuaded  his  countrymen,  who  were  now  despairing 
of  aid  from  their  idol-worship,  to  undertake  the  worship 
of  Jehovah.  But  they  soon  found  that  they  needed  in- 
struction about  the  mode  of  this  worship,  and  therefore 
sent  two  of  their  people  to  the  Tonga  Islands  to  obtain 
teachers.  A  Christian  Tongan,  who  was  visiting  in  a 
neighboring  island,  Vatoa,  hearing  of  their  desire,  now 
went  to  them  and  endeavored  to  instruct  them  ;  they 
gladly  welcomed  him,  built  a  chapel  for  Christian  wor- 
ship, and  daily  attended  his  preaching.  Afterwards  the 
teachers  who  had  been  sent  for  from  the  Tonga  Islands 
arrived,  one  of  them  a  native  of  Ono  \\ho  had  wandered 
from  home  and  had  been  converted  at  the  Tonga  Isl- 


; 


THE   FIJI   ISLANDS.  40! 

ands.  The  Ono  people  received  them  with  great  de- 
light, eagerly  listened  to  their  instructions,  and  at  length 
became  very  anxious  to  obtain  the  ministrations  of  the 
English  missionaries  themselves.  For  this  purpose  they 
sent  messengers  in  a  canoe  to  Lakemba,  where  missiona- 
ries had  now  arrived.  These  messengers,  while  out  alone 
on  the  great  deep,  came  in  an  accidental  way  to  make  a 
trial  of  their  superstitions,  and  to  renounce  them.  A 
tropic  bird  lighted  on  their  canoe,  and  several  of  them 
did  obeisance  to  it ;  when  one  of  them  seized  it,  saying 
that  if  it  was  a  god  it  could  get  away  and  if  not  he 
would  kill  and  eat  it,  and  proceeded  to  do  so,  to  the 
horror  of  his  companions.  When  they  saw  that  no  ill 
consequences  followed  this  act  they  concluded  that  their 
paganism  was  utter  folly.  In  response  to  their  request 
Rev.  John  Calvert  now  went  to  Ono  and  commenced 
mission  labor  there.  Not  long  afterwards  he  baptized 
200  persons.  The  heathen  on  this  island  then  made 
war  upon  the  Christians,  but  were  defeated,  and  finally 
were  won  over  to  Christianity  by  the  clemency  of  the 
Christians.  The  good  work  here  so  prospered  that  in  a 
few  years  the  whole  population  united  with  the  churches, 
many  went  forth  as  teachers  to  other  islands,  and  no- 
where in  the  Fiji  group  did  the  gospel  win  as  quick  and 
full  success. 

While  these  events  were  occurring  at  Ono  the  Wes- 
leyan  missionaries  in  the  Tonga  Islands  were  commen- 
cing a  mission  at  Lakemba.  Observing  that  many  Ton- 
gans  visited  the  Fiji  Islands  for  trade,  and  to  procure 
timber  for  canoes,  they  sent  two  of  their  number,  Revs. 


4O2  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

Wm.  Cross  and  David  Cargill,  to  Lakemba  in  1835. 
They  reached  this  island  by  schooner  in  four  days,  and 
were  welcomed  by  a  large  number  of  Tongans,  with 
whom  they  were  able  to  converse  in  their  own  language, 
and  by  their  influence  gained  favor  with  the  Fijian  king. 
Their  first  night  on  shore  was  made  so  uncomfortable  by 
mosquitos  and  by  hogs,  that  entered  their  place  of  lodg- 
ing, that  they  returned  to  their  vessel ;  but  soon  houses 
were  built  for  them  and  a  place  of  worship,  in  which 
from  the  outset  they  addressed  audiences  of  1 50  people. 
They  suffered  many  hardships,  were  sometimes  at  great 
peril  amid  the  fierce  wars  of  the  natives,  and  were  much 
opposed  by  the  heathen  king ;  but  were  able  in  five 
months  to  baptize  thirty-one  of  the  resident  Tongans, 
and  in  one  year  to  form  a  church  of  280  members. 
Two  seamen  from  the  wrecked  ship  Active  took  up  their 
abode  with  them  and  rendered  them  much  service,  but 
finally,  against  their  warnings,  went  to  sea  in  a  boat,  and 
were  pursued  by  natives  of  another  island,  and  killed 
and  eaten.  The  good  work  of  these  missionaries  ex- 
tended to  the  numerous  small  islands  in  the  vicinity,  and 
in  these,  after  many  struggles,  churches  were  formed, 
and  the  mission  enterprise  ever  afterwards  prospered. 

Thus  far  the  missionaries  in  the  Fiji  Islands  had  seen 
little  more  hardship  than  they  had  experienced  in  the 
Tonga  Islands  ;  and  their  labors  had  been  as  abundantly 
blessed.  They  were  therefore  encouraged  to  extend 
their  enterprise  to  the  Inner  Islands,  from  which  invita- 
tions were  now  coming  to  them.  With  this  view,  in  1839, 
Revs.  John  Hunt  and  Lythe  went  to  Somosomo,  on  the 


THE   FIJI   ISLANDS.  403 

island  of  Taviuni,  the  "Garden  of  Fiji."  They  landed 
to  witness  almost  immediately  the  strangling  of  sixteen 
wives  of  the  king's  son,  who  had  been  drowned  at  sea, 
and  to  see  a  cannibal  feast  on  eleven  bodies  of  men 
killed  in  war.  These  were  cooked  and  eaten  so  close  to 
their  house  that  they  had  to  close  their  blinds  to  shut 
out  the  revolting  sight.  For  this  slight  on  his  feast  the 
king  sought  to  kill  one  of  them,  and  with  difficulty  was 
dissuaded  from  doing  so.  They  afterwards  saw  the  same 
king  buried  alive  while  he  was  very  ill. 

So  frightful  did  it  now  become  for  them  to  remain  at 
Somosomo,  that  in  September,  1847,  tne7  a^  secretly 
and  suddenly  embarked  on  a  schooner,  and  went  to 
Mbau  ;  but  this  island  was  at  that  time  in  such  a  whirl- 
wind of  war  with  other  islands  that  they  soon  removed 
to  Rewa,  a  few  miles  south,  on  the  island  of  Vanua-Levu. 
Here,  however,  they  lived  in  perils  and  scenes  of  horror 
similar  to  those  they  had  fled  from  in  Taviuni. 

One  incident  of  their  terrible  experiences  should  be 
related  to  show  the  heroism  of  their  wives.  In  1849  a 
marauding  tribe,  called  Mbutoni,  came  to  Mbau  bearing 
tribute  to  King  Tanoa  ;  and  he,  desiring  to  show  them 
extraordinary  hospitality,  ordered  a  cannibal  feast  to  be 
prepared  for  them.  The  purveyor  for  this  feast,  Ngav- 
indi,  entrapped  and  killed  two  youth  ;  but  their  bodies 
were  not  considered  enough  for  the  feast,  and  he  there- 
fore hid  with  his  warriors  in  canoes  covered  with  green 
leaves  under  mangrove  trees  by  the  shore  and  surprised  a 
party  of  women,  and  seized  fourteen  of  them.  Tidings 
of  this  event  were  borne  to  the  island  of  Viva,  a  few  miles 


404  THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

north,  where  two  missionary  ladies,  Mrs.  Calvert  and  Mrs. 
Lythe,  were  alone  with  their  children,  their  husbands 
being  away  at  a  conference  of  missionaries  on  another 
island.  These  ladies  felt  that  they  must  do  what  they 
could  to  save  these  women,  and  for  this  purpose  set  out 
with  a  friendly  chief  in  a  canoe  for  Mbau.  As  they  drew 
near  to  Mbau  they  heard  the  din  of  the  death-drums  and 
the  shrieks  of  the  women  who  were  being  murdered,  and 
hurried  the  paddling  of  their  boatmen,  and  at  length 
leaped  ashore  and  pressed  through  the  throngs  of  savages 
to  the  house  of  the  king.  Although  there  was  the  pen- 
alty of  death  for  any  woman  who  should  go  unbidden 
into  the  presence  of  the  king  they  went  directly  to  him, 
and  with  whales'  teeth  as  presents  in  their  hands  de- 
manded the  release  of  the  women.  Strange  to  say,  he 
granted  their  request ;  five  women  who  were  not  yet 
killed  were  rescued,  and  the  missionary  ladies  returned 
safely  to  their  homes.  Amid  such  scenes  as  these  the 
missionaries  labored  on,  sometimes  suffering  greatly  in 
the  terrible  hurricanes  that  occasionally  swept  over  this 
part  of  the  Pacific,  sometimes  in  peril  amid  the  wars  of 
the  natives,  and  often  utterly  horrified  by  the  brutal  vices 
and  fiendish  cruelty  of  the  people. 

The  spirit  of  the  gospel  that  would  rescue  the  most 
degraded  and  evil  of  mankind  was  illustrated  in  their 
labors  among  these  monsters  of  lust  and  cruelty,  and  the 
power  of  the  gospel  to  uplift  and  ennoble  the  most 
hopeless  of  men  in  the  success  that  followed  their  labors. 
Gradually  they  gathered  children  into  their  schools  and 
congregations  into  their  chapels,  and  one  by  one  the 


THE  FIJI   ISLANDS.  405 

haughtiest  and  fiercest  of  the  savages  bowed  before  their 
proclamation  of  divine  love.  Finally  a  wonderful  re- 
vival of  religion  occurred.  The  natives  were  utterly 
overcome  with  fear  and  contrition  for  their  sins.  "They 
prayed  in  agony.  They  literally  roared  for  hours  to- 
gether. Sometimes  they  fainted  from  exhaustion,  and 
they  had  no  comfort  till  they  found  peace  in  believing 
in  Christ."  Hundreds  were  afterwards  received  into 
the  churches,  and  among  them  some  of  the  most  savage 
chiefs. 

After  this  revival  the  progress  of  the  missionary  work 
was  very  rapid.  Heathenism  was  soon  universally  re- 
nounced, the  awful  horrors  of  cannibalism  ceased ; 
churches  were  everywhere  organized  and  the  forms  of 
Christian  civilization  adopted.  On  the  Island  of  Mbau 
a  great  stone,  on  which  it  had  been  the  custom  to 
slaughter  victims  for  cannibal  feasts,  on  which  Mr.  Lythe 
once  saw  fourteen  persons  killed,  was  conveyed  by  the 
natives  to  a  church,  hollowed  out,  and  made  a  baptis- 
mal font;  "a  fit  emblem/' it  was  remarked,  "of  the 
people  who  had  been  transformed  from  pagan  barbarism 
into  Christian  character. " 

During  the  year  1874  a  terrible  mortality  was  caused 
by  measles  in  the  Fiji  Islands.  King  Thakombau  and  his 
three  sons  visited  Sydney  and  returned  home  ill  with  this 
disease.  A  multitude  of  chiefs  and  friends  gathered  from 
all  the  islands,  to  welcome  them,  and  returning  to  their 
homes  spread  the  contagion.  When  taken  sick  the 
natives  rushed  into  the  streams  of  water  to  cool  their 
fever,  and  when  recovering  ate  improper  food.  The 


406  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE  PACIFIC. 

result  was  that  40,000  people,  one-third  of  the  popula- 
tion, died. 

The  present  population  of  the  Fiji  archipelago  is 
about  128,400.  At  the  time  of  its  discovery  it  was 
estimated  at  200,000.  The  diminution  is  chiefly  at- 
tributable to  the  mortality  caused  by  foreign  diseases. 
Of  the  present  population,  111,743  are  Fijis,  3,567 
Europeans,  796  half-castes  and  4,230  Rotumans. 

The  Fiji  Islands  were  formally  annexed  to  Great 
Britain  in  the  year  1874.  The  king,  Thakombau,  had 
for  many  years  been  harassed  by  the  contentions  of 
his  chiefs,  the  opposition  of  the  foreign  settlers  and 
the  demands  of  foreign  countries  for  redress  of  wrongs, 
and  therefore  finally  ceded  his  islands  unconditionally  to 
Great  Britain.  On  this  occasion  he  said  to  Governor 
Sir  Hercules  Robinson,  the  English  commissioner,  "If 
matters  remain  as  they  are,  Fiji  will  become  like  a  piece 
of  driftwood  and  be  picked  up  by  the  first  passer-by. 
I  am  assured  that,  if  we  do  not  cede  Fiji,  the  white 
stalkers  on  the  beach,  the  cormorants,  will  open  their 
maws  and  swallow  us.  By  annexation  the  two  races, 
the  white  and  the  black,  will  be  bound  together  under 
laws,  and  the  stronger  nation  will  lend  stability  to  the 
weaker. "  In  the  ceremony  of  cession  Thakombau  handed 
his  war-club  to  the  commissioner,  saying,  as  interpreted, 
"The  king  gives  her  Majesty,  Queen  Victoria,  his  old 
and  favorite  war-club — the  former,  and  until  lately  the 
only  known,  law  of  Fiji.  In  abandoning  club-law  and 
adopting  the  forms  and  principles  of  civilized  societies 
he  lays  by  his  old  weapon  and  covers  it  with  the  em- 


THE    FIJI   ISLANDS.  407 

blems  of  peace.  The  barbaric  law  and  age  are  of  the 
past ;  and  his  people  now  submit  themselves,  under  her 
Majesty's  rule,  to  civilization. " 

The  result  of  the  mission  work  in  Fiji  is  that,  where 
sixty-five  years  ago  there  was  not  a  single  Christian, 
to-day  there  is  not  an  avowed  heathen.  For  many  years 
cannibalism  has  been  wholly  extinct.  Miss  Gordon- 
Cumming  has  remarked  in  her  book,  "At  Home  in 
Fiji,"  that  "it  is  difficult  now  to  imagine  that  this  peo- 
ple, with  their  mellifluous  speech  and  almost  Parisian 
manners,  were  the  cannibals  of  ancient  times."  The 
number  of  their  churches  is  now  900,  the  number  of 
their  church-members  27,000,  the  attendants  at  religious 
meetings  100,000  and  the  pupils  of  Sunday-schools  40- 
ooo.  In  almost  every  house  family  worship  is  observed, 
and  with  great  enthusiasm  and  benevolence  the  people 
are  conducting  mission  enterprises  for  the  pagan  islands 
further  west. 

In  all  history  no  human  enterprises  have  caused 
such  a  change  in  the  character,  conduct  and  condition 
of  a  degraded  people  as  this  that  has  been  accomplished 
in  Fiji,  nor  is  there  any  more  remarkable  transforma- 
tion reported  in  the  annals  of  missions.  The  uplifting 
by  the  sun  of  the  briny  waters  that  surge  around  these 
islands,  to  float  in  the  sky  and  gleam  in  hues  of  light, 
is  not  more  wonderful  than  this  transformation  by  divine 
grace  of  the  foul  and  fiendish  heathen  into  humble, 
loving  and  lovable  Christians,  into  sons  of  God  and 
joint-heirs  with  Christ. 


408  THE   ISLANDS    OF  THE   PACIFIC. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

MELANESIA. 

THE  missionary  enterprise  has  been  progressive. 
Each  island  in  turn,  as  it  has  received  light,  has  beauti- 
fully become  a  radiating  centre  to  send  light  into  the 
surrounding  pagan  night,  and  thus  almost  every  group 
of  the  South  Pacific  has  sent  evangelists  to  the  little  clus- 
ters of  the  New  Hebrides,  the  Loyalty  and  the  Solomon 
Islands,  and  to  New  Caledonia  and  Sumatra. 

A  description  of  these  islands  would  be  like  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  sketches  that  have  been  given  of  mountains 
of  verdure  rising  from  the  blue  ocean,  with  waving 
plumes  of  palm  and  plantain  and  picturesque  forms  of 
ridges,  valleys  and  cliffs  ;  ' '  summer  isles  of  Eden  lying 
in  dark  purple  spheres  of  sea." 

But  a  brief  account  should  be  given  of  a  few  of  the 
New  Hebrides,  which  are  of  special  interest  in  mission 
history.  Erromanga,  where  Williams  and  several  other 
missionaries  were  martyred,  is  an  island  measuring  thirty 
by  twenty-two  miles,  with  mountains  3,000  feet  high. 
Tanna,  where  the  most  thrilling  adventures  of  missiona- 
ries occurred,  is  "the  most  lovely  and  fertile  island  of 
this  group,"  measuring  twenty  by  eighteen  miles,  "rising 
abruptly  from  the  ocean,  with  green  table-topped  moun- 
tains piled  gracefully  together."  On  this  island  is  the 
volcano  Yoswa,  that  gives  out  a  great  light  and  throws 


NEW   HEBRIDES  &  ADJOINING   ISLANDS. 


SOLOMON 

ISLANDS    \ 


aoo  300  900  foo 


^\B  «  A  R  y 

UNIVERSITY 
tit* 


MELANESIA.  411 

up  large  stones  at  regular  intervals  of  five  or  six  minutes. 
Aniwa,  where  there  has  been  extraordinary  missionary  suc- 
cess, is  a  "  dainty  gem  "  of  coral  formation,  ten  miles  in 
circumference  and  of  about  fifty  feet  elevation  above  the 
ocean.  Aneityum,  where  there  have  been  equally  great 
missionary  triumphs,  is  the  most  southerly  island  of  this 
group.  It  has  mountains  2,788  feet  high,  and  is  partly 
barren,  with  a  bare  red  soil,  and  partly  clothed  with  a 
dense  foliage  of  beautifully  contrasting  shades  of  green. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  New  Hebrides  are  mixed  races, 
as  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  they  speak  some  twenty 
different  languages — in  some  cases  on  the  same  island 
two  or  three  languages  as  different  from  each  other  as 
French  and  German.  But  all  these  languages  have  the 
same  grammatical  construction.  The  natives  are  chiefly 
of  Papuan  stock  with  some  traces  of  Polynesian  lineage. 
They  are  smaller,  darker  and  weaker  than  the  Polyne- 
sians, but  lighter  than  the  true  Papuans  ;  their  hair  frizzly, 
foreheads  receding,  and  noses  flat. 

It  would  almost  seem  to  have  been  in  grim  irony 
that,  in  1606,  Quiros,  on  discovering  the  most  northern 
island  of  this  group,  gave  it  sacred  names — calling  it 
Espiritu  Santo,  its  harbor  Vera  Cruz,  its  river  Jordan, 
and  its  chief  town  New  Jerusalem — for  the  character  of 
the  natives  was  not  in  keeping  with  such  names.  To 
those  who  have  always  lived  in  the  comforts  and  refine- 
ments of  civilization  hardly  anything  could  be  more  re- 
volting  than  the  appearance  and  conduct  of  these  natives. 
They  are  described  as  ' '  roving  about  in  a  state  of  perfect 
nudity,  the  women  wearing  only  a  petticoat  a  few  inches 


412  THE    ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

wide  of  matting  wrought  in  diamond  patterns  of  red, 
white  and  black  colors,  and  all,  men  and  women,  smeared 
over  their  faces  with  a  red  pigment  of  ochreous  earth  or 
turmeric,  or  blackened  with  charcoal ;  sometimes,  with  a 
horrid  humor,  painted  with  different  colors  on  opposite 
sides  of  their  faces  ;  the  cartilage  of  the  nose  in  many  in- 
stances pierced  and  the  orifice  filled  with  a  circular  piece 
of  stone,  and  the  lobe  of  each  ear  hung  with  ornaments 
of  sea-  or  tortoise-shell.  Ingeniously  wrought  bracelets 
or  small  rings  of  ground  cocoanut  shells  were  worn 
around  their  arms  and  ankles,  garters  of  green  leaves 
were  tied  around  the  leg  under  the  knee,  and  their  long 
crisp  hair  was  gathered  into  a  large  topknot  colored  yel- 
low and  surmounted  with  a  plume  of  cocks'  feathers." 
On  Aneityum  the  men  dressed  their  hair  in  small  tresses, 
each  bound  round  very  neatly,  with  thin,  well-prepared 
fibres  of  a  slender  plant,  to  within  one  inch  of  the  ends. 
"They  lived  in  wretched  huts,  built  of  branches 
of  trees  stuck  into  the  ground,  fastened  to  each  other 
at  the  top  and  covered  with  leaves.  For  the  most  part 
these  huts  were  not  more  than  four  feet  high,  six  feet 
wide,  and  varying  in  length  according  to  the  number  of 
people  in  a  family — if  indeed  such  an  assembly  of  de- 
graded beings  may  be  called  a  family — a  man  having 
three  to  seven  wives,  and  these  his  slaves  ;  the  children 
of  whom  huddled  together  in  these  wretched  hovels 
without  any  sense  of  shame,  having  in  most  cases  only 
dried  grass  to  cover  them  and  in  some  instances  burying 
their  bodies  in  the  earth  for  warmth  or  protection  from 
the  mosquitos," 


MELANESIA.  413 

Rev.  Joseph  Annand,  who  spent  three  years  on  Fate, 
thus  speaks  of  his  experiences  there  in  1874  with  a  bro- 
ther missionary,  Mr.  Mackenzie  :  ' '  We  met  one  man 
who  had  thirty-five  wives  and  had  eaten  sixty-seven 
human  beings.  We  slept  in  a  low  grass  house,  about 
forty  feet  long  and  eight  feet  high,  with  a  door  two  and 
a  half  feet  high.  Just  outside  of  the  door  was  a  gutter 
of  filth,  ankle  deep.  We  had  cocoanut  mats  to  sleep  on. 
The  oven  was  open  near  us,  and  in  consequence  we 
could  not  eat  some  of  the  food  cooked  there.  We 
had  a  shelf  on  the  wall  two  and  a  half  feet  high  by 
as  many  wide,  for  two  of  us  to  sleep  on,  and  thin  mats  to 
cover  us.  The  mosquitos  and  fleas  cannot  be  imagined. 
Each  leg  of  our  bedstead-shelf  had  a  pig  tied  to  it,  which 
tugged  so  that  we  feared  a  great  fall.  An  old  woman 
who  slept  on  the  stove  belabored  the  pigs  in  the  night  to 
keep  them  quiet.  In  the  morning  we  were  awakened  by 
the  crowing  of  a  cock  which  was  right  beside  us.  The 
census  of  the  dwelling  for  the  night  was,  '  Thirteen  pigs, 
seven  people,  rats,  and  fowls/  Four  or  five  months  later 
the  enemies  of  our  entertainers  came  down  upon  them 
and  cooked  and  ate  every  person  in  the  family." 

Like  the  savage  races  further  east,  the  New  Hebridese 
were  addicted  to  infanticide,  widow-strangling,  cannibal- 
ism and  idol-worship,  and,  like,  them,  were  made  only 
worse  by  contact  with  foreigners  ;  for  traders  and  ' '  black- 
birders  "  repeatedly  pillaged  their  property,  burned  their 
villages  and  massacred  or  sold  into  slavery  many  of  their 
people.  They  were  also  maddened  by  the  belief  that 
diseases  were  introduced  by  the  white  men,  and  in  this 
19 


414  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

belief  were  partly  correct ;  for,  as  has  been  mentioned, 
the  measles  were  purposely  introduced  into  Tanna  and 
other  diseases  were  caused  by  the  vices  and  intemperance 
of  the  foreigners.  The  result  has  been  that  the  natives 
of  these  islands  have  taken  every  possible  opportunity  to 
kill  the  white  men  and  destroy  their  ships,  and  have  sur- 
passed all  the  races  of  the  Pacific  in  treachery,  cruelty 
and  malignity  towards  foreigners.  For  this  reason  these 
islands  have  well  been  named  "The  Dangerous  Islands," 
and  described  as  ' '  hells  on  earth. " 

To  accomplish  the  high  aims  of  missions  towards 
such  a  people  would  seem  to  have  been  impossible.  One 
might  almost  as  well  hope  to  transform  the  denizens  of 
the  ocean  around  their  shores — the  reptile-like  eels,  the 
wallowing  whales,  the  slimy  octopi  and  the  man-eating 
sharks — into  gentle  creatures  of  the  land  and  upper  air, 
into  flying  fowl  or  birds-of-paradise,  as  to  change  so 
demon-like  a  race  into  a  pure,  godly  and  loving  people. 
But  beneath  their  savage  exterior  and  in  their  wild  feroc- 
ity were  germs  of  a  nature  made  in  the  image  of  God, 
susceptible  of  the  holiest  culture  and  capable  of  the  high- 
est growth,  and  when  there  came  to  them,  in  their  dark- 
ness, woe  and  degradation,  evangels  of  the  sublimest 
truths,  and  with  these  truths  the  blessed  influences  of  the 
Divine  Spirit,  they  were  gradually  subdued,  and  changed 
to  humility,  purity  and  nobleness  of  character. 

But  the  process  of  transformation  was  slow.  At  first 
there  was  for  the  missionaries  a  period  of  perils  and  mar- 
tyrdoms. When  the  light  first  shone  "the  darkness 
comprehended  it  not."  These  islands  have  been  well 


SAMOAN  MISSIONARY. 


MELANESIA.  417 

called  "The  Martyr  Islands,"  so  many  pioneers  of  the 
missionary  enterprise  have  fallen  here.  The  natives  were 
moved  to  destroy  these  devoted  heroes  by  the  supersti- 
tion that  they  caused  malarial  diseases  by  supernatural 
influences.  The  history  of  these  islands  is  almost  repe- 
titious by  its  ever-recurring  accounts  of  this  wrath  of 
the  natives,  which  broke  forth  at  the  returns  of  the  un- 
healthy seasons  as  regularly  as  the  eruptions  of  their  Tan- 
nese  volcano.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that,  with 
this  delusion,  they  sought  to  murder  the  missionaries ; 
for  with  equally  absurd  delusions  civilized  people  have 
persecuted  and  put  to  death  persons  whom  they  suspect- 
ed of  witchcraft,  and  have  often  mobbed  and  lynched 
monstrous  villains.  The  natives  were  also  moved  by 
their  very  idea  of  justice  to  destroy  the  missionaries  in 
retaliation  for  robberies,  murders  and  kidnappings  com- 
mitted by  white  men,  just  as  Americans  inflict  fierce 
vengeance  on  the  Indians  who  burn  their  homes  and  kill 
their  wives  and  children. 

The  history  of  the  New  Hebrides  mission  begins  with 
accounts  of  such  conduct  of  natives  towards  the  mission- 
aries at  the  island  of 

ERROMANGA. 

Capt.  Cook,  the  discoverer  of  this  island,  gave  its  in- 
habitants sad  first  impressions  of  the  character  of  white 
men.  While  here  on  shore  he  became  alarmed  because 
some  natives  laid  hands  on  his  boat,  and  therefore 
caused  his  seamen  to  fire  two  volleys  of  shot  into  their 
midst,  and  killed  four  of  them  and  wounded  many 


418  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

more.  Afterwards  he  fired  from  his  vessel  four-pound 
shot  among  their  houses.  In  subsequent  times  traders 
who  came  to  obtain  sandal-wood,  which  brought  great 
prices  in  China,  committed  many  similar  outrages.  At 
this  island  a  trader  killed  a  son  of  the  chief  Raniani 
just  before  the  great  missionary  apostle  John  Williams 
and  a  young  missionary  by  the  name  of  James  Harris 
arrived  to  introduce  Samoan  teachers.  Unfortunately 
these  missionaries  landed  here  as  among  infuriated 
wolves.  As  they  were  going  inland  they  saw  too  late 
their  danger  and  turned  to  flee.  Harris  was  quickly 
knocked  down  and  clubbed.  Williams  reached  the  sea, 
but  stumbled  over  the  slippery  stones  of  the  beach  and 
was  pierced  with  arrows  by  the  very  chief  whose  son  had 
been  killed  by  the  trader,  and  their  bodies  were  eaten  by 
the  savages.  During  the  following  year  some  of  their 
bones,  as  it  was  supposed,  were  recovered  and  interred 
at  Upolu,  Samoa  ;  but  it  is  probable  that  the  natives  de- 
livered up  bones  of  their  own  people,  supposing  that 
merely  human  bones  were  asked  for. 

To  renew  the  mission  enterprise  on  this  island,  and 
afterwards  to  continue  it  here  and  on  the  other  islands, 
after  terrible  martyrdoms,  could  not  have  been  suggested 
by  "motives  of  avarice  or  of  worldly  ambition."  To 
leave  homes  of  safety,  comfort  and  refinement  and  go 
into  fellowship  with  these  unclean  and  sensual  savages, 
and  into  the  fire  of  their  demoniac  rage,  could  have  been 
prompted  only  by  a  pure  benevolence  kindled  by  divine 
love.  It  is  delightful  to  note  that  even  the  degraded 
Polynesian  races  themselves  entered  upon  this  crusade 


MELANESIA.  419 

against  heathenism  and  went  to  the  front  in  its  trials  and 
martyrdoms.  It  was  native  Samoans,  just  lifted  out  of 
the  depths  of  pagan  degradation,  who  were  often  the 
pioneer  missionaries  in  these  islands,  again  and  again 
took  up  the  blood-stained  banner  of  the  cross,  and  toiled 
and  suffered  and  died  in  this  holy  warfare. 

These  Samoans  now  volunteered  to  renew  the  attempt 
to  carry  the  gospel  to  Erromanga,  and  in  1 840,  under 
the  conduct  of  Rev.  T.  Heath,  two  of  them  were  taken 
thither  to  labor  as  evangelists.  They  were  badly  treated 
and  for  several  months  suffered  for  lack  of  food,  obtain- 
ing barely  enough  to  sustain  life  by  the  kindness  of  a 
friendly  native  who  supplied  them  by  stealth.  When 
the  missionary  vessel  arrived  during  the  following  year 
they  fled  with  difficulty  to  it  and  returned  to  Samoa. 

In  1852  two  natives  of  Rarotonga  and  a  native  of 
this  island  of  Erromanga,  who  had  been  educated  at  a 
mission  school  at  Samoa,  went  thither,  and  were  wel- 
comed by  the  people.  The  result  of  their  labors  was 
that  in  process  of  time  one  hundred  natives  renounced 
idolatry,  two  chapels  were  built,  and  the  very  chief  who 
murdered  Williams  embraced  Christianity  and  delivered 
up  to  the  teachers  the  club  with  which  the  murder  had 
been  committed. 

In  1857  Rev.  George  N.  Gordon,  a  young  man  from 
the  Presbyterian  College  at  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  vol- 
unteered to  aid  in  the  perilous  work  on  this  island,  and 
proceeded  thither  with  his  wife.  Soon  after  their  arrival 
a  terrific  hurricane  occurred,  and  after  this  the  measles 
were  introduced  by  a  trading  ship  and  caused  many 


42O  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

deaths.  As  usual  the  natives  attributed  all  such  calami- 
ties to  their  gods,  and  now,  supposing  that  the  presence 
of  the  missionaries  was  the  cause  of  their  anger,  became 
infuriated  against  them.  While  Mr.  Gordon,  in  order 
to  get  away  from  the  malaria  of  the  low  swamps, 
was  building  a  house  at  a  place  elevated  1,000  feet 
above  Dillon's  Bay,  some  natives  waylaid  and  killed 
him,  and  then  meeting  his  wife,  who  ran  to  inquire 
about  the  disturbance,  killed  her  also. 

A  younger  brother  of  Mr.  Gordon,  Rev.  James  D. 
Gordon,  now  offered  to  take  up  the  standard  of  missions 
on  this  island,  and  heroically  went  thither  in  1864.  He 
labored  efficiently  eight  years,  but  finally  was  tomahawked 
by  a  savage  who  supposed  that  he  had  caused  the  death 
of  his  child  by  supernatural  influence.  About  two  years 
before  the  Rev.  James  McNair,  who  had  come  to  assist 
Mr.  Gordon,  had  died  of  malarial  disease.  And  now 
another  missionary,  Rev.  Hugh  A.  Robinson,  hastened 
to  continue  the  work  on  this  island,  and  in  a  few  years 
was  able  to  organize  a  church  of  190  members  and  to 
employ  thirty-three  native  teachers  in  evangelical  work. 
In  the  church  built  by  him  at  Dillon's  Bay  a  tablet  was 
placed  with  this  inscription  : 


MELANESIA.  421 

"Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Christian  missionaries 
who  died  on  this  island  : 

JOHN  WILLIAMS, 
JAMES  HARRIS, 

Killed  at  Dillon's  Bay  by  the  natives,  3Oth  November,  1839 ; 

GEORGE  N.  GORDON, 

ELLEN  C.  GORDON, 

Killed  on  2Oth  of  May,  1861  ; 

JAMES  McNAiR, 
Who  died  at  Dillon's  Bay,  i6th  July,  1870;  and 

JAMES  D.  GORDON, 
Killed  at  Portinia  Bay,  yth  March,  1872. 

They   hazarded   their  lives  for  the  name  of  our   Lord 

Jesus.     Acts  15  :  26. 

It  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that 
Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners. 

i  Tim.  i  :  15." 

Other  islands  of  this  group  as  well  as  Erromanga  have 
merited  the  title  of  "Martyr  Islands,"  among  which  is 

FATE,    OR   SANDWICH    ISLAND. 

Here,  as  at  Erromanga,  the  primitive  ferocity  of  the 
people  was  increased  by  the  horrible  atrocities  of  the 
foreigners.  Here,  as  has  been  related,  the  crews  of  three 
sandal-wood  vessels  got  into  a  quarrel  with  the  natives, 
killed  one  hundred  of  them,  and  then  pursued  a  com- 
pany of  thirty  aged  men,  women  and  children  to  a  cave, 
and  there  kindled  a  fire  and  suffocated  them,  and  then 
cut  down  the  fruit-bearing  trees  and  pillaged  the  houses 


422  THE    ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

of  the  villages.  In  retaliation  a  chief  afterwards  killed 
twenty-two  seamen  of  a  wrecked  whaleship  and  distribu- 
ted their  bodies  to  his  people  to  be  eaten.  For  mission- 
aries to  land  among  these  natives,  while  they  were  thus 
fierce  for  revenge  against  foreigners,  was  like  Daniel 
entering  the  lions'  den. 

But  providentially  the  way  was  opened  to  make  a 
peaceful  beginning  of  the  mission  work  on  this  island. 
A  Samoan  chief,  by  the  name  of  Sualo,  while  endeavor- 
ing to  voyage  to  the  Tongas  was  driven  to  this  island  by 
a  storm.  He  gained  the  favor  of  the  natives,  married 
the  daughter  of  the  chief  and  became  a  leading  man. 
Hearing  what  had  been  accomplished  by  missionaries  at 
Samoa  he  sent  a  request  to  Messrs.  Murray  and  Turner, 
as  they  were  passing  in  the  missionary  packet  John  Wil- 
liams, that  they  would  send  teachers  to  this  island,  and 
four  Samoan  teachers  were  committed  to  his  protection. 
He  aided  them  in  their  Christian  work,  and  finally  with 
a  number  of  the  natives  renounced  heathenism.  The 
idolaters  on  the  island  made  opposition  and,  with  their 
ever-recurring  suspicion  that  the  teachers  were  bringing 
the  wrath  of  their  gods  upon  them,  murdered  several  of 
them. 

In  subsequent  times  the  mission  work  on  this  island 
was  carried  to  signal  success,  and  such  a  change  effected 
in  the  character  of  the  people  that  when  a  vessel  with 
one  hundred  and  twenty  people  on  board  was  wrecked 
here,  instead  of  killing  and  devouring  them,  as  they 
would  have  done  in  former  times,  they  rescued  them  all, 
took  them,  thirty  to  one  village,  thirty  to  another,  and  so 


MELANESIA.  423 

on  around  the  island,  and  sheltered  and  fed  them  all 
until  a  vessel  arrived  on  which  they  were  provided  with 
safe  passage  to  Fiji. 

No  island  of  this  group  has  a  more  thrilling  history 
than 

TANNA, 

which  has  been  called  "The  Light-house  of  the  South 
Pacific."  Here  were  a  people  like  their  own  climate; 
sometimes  mild  and  pleasing,  like  their  days  of  calm  and 
sunshine,  and  sometimes  wild  and  furious,  like  the 
cyclones  that  occasionally  stormed  over  their  island  and 
prostrated  their  forests  and  destroyed  their  houses. 

On  this  island  were  a  greater  number  of  different 
tribes,  speaking  different  languages,  than  on  any  other 
of  the  group.  Any  native  going  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  his  own  tribe  was  in  peril  of  his  life.  Once  two 
young  men  stole  their  way  to  an  eminence  to  see  a  ship 
lying  at  anchor  and  were  discovered  by  the  neighboring 
tribe,  murdered  and  eaten.  These  tribes  were  constant- 
ly at  war.  When  once  informed  by  a  chief  returning 
from  Aneityum  that  there  was  no  war  on  that  island  they 
incredulously  exclaimed,  "When  was  such  a  thing  heard 
of  as  a  country  without  war  !" 

Into  this  babel  of  languages  and  whirlpool  of  stnfe 
missionaries  at  length  ventured  with  their  messages  of 
divine  peace  and  blessing.  Rev.  John  Williams  came 
here  on  the  day  before  his  death,  and  was  much  pleased 
with  the  apparent  friendliness  and  peaceful  disposition  of 
the  people,  and  set  on  shore  three  excellent  Samoans, 
who  were  most  cordially  welcomed.  So  eager  were  the 


424  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

natives  that  these  teachers  should  take  up  their  abode 
among  them  that  they  would  not  allow  them  to  return 
to  the  vessel  for  their  baggage,  except  as  three  of  the 
crew  remained  as  hostages  till  they  again  landed.  But 
soon  after  the  vessel  departed  the  teachers  found  them- 
selves in  peril  because  of  the  intertribal  wars  and  the 
disposition  of  the  natives  to  attribute  the  diseases  caused 
by  malaria  to  supernatural  influence  exercised  by  them. 
Two  of  these  teachers  died  of  these  epidemics  and  the 
others  fled  from  the  island. 

So  important  however  seemed  this  beautiful  island, 
the  most  fertile  and  attractive  of  the  group,  having  a 
population  of  12,000,  that  the  Samoan  Assembly  of 
missionaries  in  1842  sent  thither  Rev.  Messrs.  Turner 
and  Nesbit,  with  their  wives.  The  story  of  their  expe- 
riences and  that  of  the  missionaries  who  succeeded  them, 
although  distressingly  full  of  painful  incidents,  may  well 
be  considered  in  detail,  as  it  pictures  the  light  shining  in 
darkness,  and  illustrates  how  the  Lord  was  with  his  ser- 
vants, to  interpose  by  special  providences  in  their  behalf 
and  to  bless  their  labors. 

Messrs.  Turner  and  Nesbit  at  first  were  most  kindly 
received  by  the  natives.  But  as  soon  as  they  were  able 
to  use  the  language,  and  had  given  some  little  instruc- 
tion, a  body  of  cannibal  sorcerers  living  near  the  volcano 
became  jealous  of  them,  because  of  their  increasing 
influence  with  the  people,  and  made  several  futile  at- 
tempts to  destroy  them.  Finally  an  epidemic  broke  out, 
and  these  priests  persuaded  the  natives  that  the  mission- 
aries were  the  cause  of  it ;  whereupon  the  heathen  tribes, 


MELANESIA.  42$ 

infuriated  as  against  the  worst  of  enemies,  surrounded 
the  village  in  which  they  resided.  The  natives  of  the 
village  now  entreated  the  missionaries  to  aid  them  in  the 
battle  that  was  about  to  occur,  and  when  this  was  re- 
fused asked  them  to  lend  them  a  gun,  which  also  they 
would  not  do.  The  only  resource  of  the  missionaries 
now  was  prayer.  But  just  as  the  heathen  were  about  to 
attack  them  a  terrific  thunderstorm  burst  upon  the  isl- 
and, and  the  natives  fled  in  every  direction  for  shelter 
from  the  torrents  of  rain.  During  the  following  day, 
however,  they  again  gathered,  to  the  number  of  2,000, 
around  the  village,  and  at  night  approached,  setting  fire 
to  the  houses  of  those  friendly  to  the  missionaries. 
Finally,  as  the  only  way  of  escape,  the  missionaries 
secretly  fled  with  their  Samoan  assistants  to  a  canoe  at 
the  beach,  and  put  to  sea.  But  the  violent  wind  and 
the  high  sea  compelled  them  to  return,  and  at  length, 
utterly  exhausted  and  despairing  of  deliverance,  they 
went  back  to  their  home.  At  daybreak  hundreds  of  the 
heathen  again  surrounded  their  premises,  uttering  their 
horrid  war-cries,  and  for  two  hours  they  were  in  contin- 
ual suspense,  expecting  every  moment  to  be  massacred, 
when  suddenly  the  cry,  "Sail  ho  !"  was  raised.  A  ship, 
the  Highlander,  Capt.  Lucas,  was  entering  the  harbor. 
The  captain  of  this  ship  had  heard  of  their  going  to  this 
island,  and  in  passing  by  had  been  moved  by  interest  for 
them  to  enter  the  harbor  and  inquire  about  their  condi- 
tion. He  now  provided  them  with  armed  protectors, 
took  them  aboard  his  vessel  and  conveyed  them  to 
Samoa. 


426  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

Two  years  after  this  the  missionary  vessel  was  em- 
ployed to  take  back  the  Samoan  and  Rarotongan  teach- 
ers to  this  island  ;  and  they  were  joyfully  welcomed  by 
the  natives.  The  war  of  persecution  had  ended  ;  many 
natives  had  died  of  pestilence,  and  inferring  that  the 
judgment  of  heaven  had  been  visited  upon  them  for  their 
ill  treatment  of  God's  servants  they  were  anxious  to  show 
favor  to  these  teachers.  But  at  the  return  of  the  un- 
. healthy  season  of  the  year  fever,  ague  and  dysentery  again 
prevailed  ;  several  of  the  teachers  died,  and  the  rest  were 
obliged  by  the  natives  to  flee  from  the  island  for  their 
lives. 

But  many  of  the  Tannese  had  become  warmly  at- 
tached to  these  teachers,  and  during  the  following  year 
they  fitted  up  canoes  and  went  to  Aneityum  and  persua- 
ded them  to  return  to  Tanna.  Again,  however,  the 
fevers  broke  out,  and  the  smallpox,  which  was  recklessly 
introduced  by  a  trading  vessel,  made  terrible  havoc. 
To  attempt  to  assuage  the  fears  and  rage  that  now  mad- 
dened the  natives  was  like  attempting  to  curb  their  vol- 
cano, to  repress  its  vapors  and  discharges  of  rocks  and 
fire.  The  teachers,  therefore,  were  again  obliged  to  flee 
from  the  island. 

The  Presbyterian  churches  of  Scotland,  Canada,  Aus- 
tralia and  New  Zealand  now  united  in  assuming  the 
care  of  this  mission.  ' '  The  missionaries  sent  by  these 
churches  were  organized  into  one  synod,  called  the  New 
Hebrides  Mission  Synod,  which  should  meet  annually 
and  determine  upon  their  own  operations,  each  mission- 
ary being  responsible  to  his  own  church. " 


MELANESIA.  427 

Under  this  arrangement  Rev.  Messrs.  John  G.  Paton, 
Joseph  Copeland,  and  J.  W.  Matheson,  with  their  wives, 
in  1858  set  out  for  Tanna.  They  went  first  to  Aneityum, 
and  leaving  their  families  in  the  care  of  the  missionaries 
Geddie  and  Inglis  proceeded  to  Tanna  to  build  houses. 
Mr.  Paton  remarks,  in  his  intensely  interesting  aubiogra- 
phy,  that  their  first  sight  of  the  natives  ' '  drove  them  to 
the  verge  of  dismay,  as  they  beheld  them  in  their  paint, 
nakedness  and  misery." 

They  built  houses  for  Messrs.  Paton  and  Matheson 
at  Port  Resolution  and  for  Mr.  Copeland  at  Juakaraka, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  island.  With  axes,  knives, 
fish-hooks  and  blankets  they  purchased  sites  for  build- 
ings, coral  for  lime,  timber  for  the  framework  of  the 
houses  and  sugar-cane  leaves  for  thatch. 

While  they  were  laying  the  foundations  of  these 
houses  intertribal  wars  raged  around  them,  and  bodies 
of  the  slain  were  cooked  and  feasted  upon  before  their 
eyes.  So  horrible  was  the  appetite  of  the  natives  for  hu- 
man flesh  that,  as  Mr.  Paton  relates,  they  sometimes 
even  disinterred  the  bodies  of  men  recently  buried  and 
devoured  them.  The  stream  from  which  they  obtained 
drinking  water  was  polluted  with  the  blood  of  those 
slain  in  battle,  and  the  missionaries  were  obliged  to  use 
only  the  milk  of  cocoanuts  for  drink. 

Having  partially  finished  their  houses  they  brought 
their  families  to  this  island  on  November  5,  1858.  Un- 
fortunately Mr.  Paton  had  selected  a  location  for  his 
house  in  the  low  malarial  region  ;  in  consequence  of 
which  during  the  first  year  he  had  fourteen  attacks  of 


428  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

fever,  and  in  less  than  five  months  after  his  arrival  had 
the  overwhelming  affliction  of  losing  his  wife  by  malarial 
sickness. 

The  subsequent  history  of  these  missionaries  is  a 
painful  record  of  sufferings  incurred  amid  hurricanes, 
epidemics,  wars,  and  cannibal  practices.  More  than 
once  Mr.  Paton  came  to  the  point  of  death  by  fever. 
Finally  he  erected  another  house,  on  a  high  ridge  in  the 
sweep  of  the  trade-winds,  and  there  afterwards  enjoyed 
better  health.  In  1860  the  Rev.  Mr.  Johnson,  of  Nova 
Scotia,  who  was  sent  to  assist  him,  died  of  fever  while 
his  house  was  surrounded  by  savages  threatening  his 
life.  Soon  afterwards  Mr.  Copeland  was  obliged  by  ill 
health  to  leave  the  island,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Matheson 
took  their  place  at  Juakaraka.  Several  of  the  Samoan 
teachers  also  were  murdered,  and  others  died  of  the 
smallpox  and  the  measles,  which  were  purposely  intro- 
duced and  which  destroyed  one  third  of  the  people. 
Because  of  the  drouths,  pestilences  and  hurricanes  the 
sorcerers  living  near  the  volcano  repeatedly  plotted  to 
destroy  them,  and  their  escapes  were  most  marvellous. 
Once  Mr.  Paton,  to  teach  the  priests  the  folly  of  their 
superstitions,  challenged  them  to  kill  him  by  their  incan- 
tations, and  with  this  view  bit  off  and  ate  pieces  of  bana- 
nas and  gave  the  remainder  to  them  for  use  in  sorcery, 
for,  according  to  their  belief,  he  was  by  this  act  com- 
pletely in  their  power,  since  they  had  these  fragments  of 
food  partly  eaten  by  him  to  conjure  with,  and  they  made 
extraordinary  prayers  many  days  for  his  death,  but  finally 
admitted  that  his  Jehovah  was  mightier  than  their  gods. 


MELANESIA.  429 

At  length  some  vile  foreigners  on  this  island  positively 
informed  the  natives  that  the  missionaries  were  the  cause 
of  their  diseases,  and  offered  to  supply  them  with  pow- 
der and  shot  for  destroying  them.  Nothing  was  now 
talked  of  but  war.  By  the  advice  of  a  friendly  chief  Mr. 
Paton  at  last  fled  from  his  house  just  in  time  to  escape 
their  attack,  and  took  refuge  in  the  top  of  a  huge  chest- 
nut-tree. Afterwards  at  night  he  secretly  went  to  the 
beach,  and  with  his  assistant  Samoan  teacher  put  to  sea 
in  a  canoe  ;  but  a  strong  head  wind  and  rough  sea  nearly 
swamped  the  canoe  and  drove  them  back  to  port.  Mr. 
Paton  then  hired  a  chief  to  guide  him  by  a  secret  path  to 
the  other  side  of  the  island ;  and  with  wonderful  escapes 
from  savages,  who  repeatedly  met  and  threatened  him, 
reached  the  residence  of  Mr.  Matheson.  Here  he  and 
Mr.  Matheson's  family  were  rescued  by  the  vessel  Blue 
Bell,  which  had  been  sent  by  the  missionaries  at  Aneity- 
um  to  deliver  them,  and  arrived  just  as  the  savages  were 
about  to  attack  them.  In  subsequent  years  the  mission 
work  was  resumed  on  Tanna  by  Rev.  Mr.  Watt  and  Ra- 
rotongan  and  Samoan  teachers  ;  schools  were  established 
and  churches  organized,  but  the  condition  of  the  peo- 
ple is  still  deplorable. 

The  sublime  epic  of  this  struggle  against  the  sav- 
agery and  paganism  of  the  New  Hebridese  continues  in 
narratives  of  the  wonderful  work  that  was  performed  in 

ANEITYUM. 

This  island  is  situated  only  a  few  miles  from  Tanna. 
In  1841  two  Samoan  teachers  were  taken  thither,  and 


430  THE   ISLANDS    OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

were  welcomed  by  a  multitude  of  the  natives  with  joyful 
shouts  and  a  waving  of  green  boughs.  They  succeeded 
well  in  their  labors  till  the  occurrence  of  an  epidemic, 
by  which  one  of  them,  as  well  as  many  of  the  natives, 
died,  and  on  account  of  which  they  were  driven  by  the 
natives  to  the  barren  parts  of  the  island.  In  October  of 
the  following  year  they  left  this  district  and  made  their 
residence  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  island  ;  and  here 
in  process  of  time  were  able  to  persuade  many  of  the 
natives  to  abandon  their  heathen  practices.  This  aroused 
the  jealousy  of  the  priests,  and  at  times  their  lives  were 
in  great  peril. 

In  1848  Rev.  Messrs.  John  Geddie  and  Powell,  with 
their  wives,  were  sent  from  Nova  Scotia  to  this  island. 
They  found  that  a  good  work  had  already  been  done 
among  the  people  by  the  Samoan  teachers,  and  subse- 
quently were  able  every  year  to  report  remarkable  suc- 
cess ;  but  they  had  also  to  tell  of  persecution  by  the 
idolaters.  Their  church  was  burned  and  their  own 
house  set  on  fire,  and  barely  saved  by  Christian  natives 
who  were  keeping  watch  by  night.  Four  of  the  con- 
verts were  killed  and  eaten.  At  another  time  three  men 
and  three  women  of  the  Christian  tribe  were  killed  by 
the  heathen.  Mr.  Geddie  unwittingly  incurred  the 
wrath  of  the  natives  by  cutting  trees  from  a  sacred 
grove,  and  by  erecting  a  fence  in  a  way,  according 
to  the  natives'  superstitions,  to  shut  off  the  path  by 
which  demons  were  accustomed  to  pass  from  the  moun- 
tains to  the  sea.  But  by  kind  words  and  friendly  con- 
duct he  succeeded  in  conciliating  them  ;  though  on 


MELANESIA.  431 

several  occasions  he  narrowly  escaped  death  at  their 
hands. 

In  a  few  years  almost  the  entire  people  embraced 
Christianity.  They  showed  the  genuineness  of  their  con- 
version by  their  works.  Immorality  and  heathen  prac- 
tices were  abandoned ;  deeds  of  benevolence  took  the 
place  of  deeds  of  cruelty;  $5,000  were  contributed  for 
the  publication  of  a  translation  of  the  Bible  ;  and  the 
product  of  their  cocoanut  trees  for  six  months,  amount- 
ing to  twenty-six  tons  of  copra,  worth  $574,  was  given 
for  roofing  two  churches  with  corrugated  iron.  Fifty 
natives  went  forth  as  evangelists  to  other  islands.  After 
the  death  of  Mr.  Geddie  a  wooden  tablet  was  placed 
back  of  the  pulpit  at  Anelcauhet  with  the  inscription, 
"When  he  landed,  in  1848,  there  were  no  Christians 
here ;  and  when  he  left,  in  1872,  there  were  no  heathen." 

Turning  from  this  island  of  Aneityum  we  find  an 
equally  bright  record  of  work  performed  in  the  little 
coral  island  of 

ANIWA. 

Here  in  1840  Samoan  teachers  landed,  and  afterwards 
teachers  from  Aneityum.  The  latter  were  attacked  by 
the  savages  ;  one  of  them  was  murdered,  and  the  other 
fled.  In  1866  Rev.  J.  G.  Paton,  after  his  escape  from 
Tanna,  was  located  here.  Remembering  his  sufferings 
from  malaria  at  Tanna  he  chose  for  the  site  of  his  house 
the  highest  ground  of  the  island,  a  mound  which  had 
been  used  for  ages  as  a  place  for  the  burial  of  bones 
thrown  out  from  cannibal  feasts.  The  natives  supposed 
that  their  gods  would  destroy  any  one  who  should  des- 


432  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

ecrate  this  place.  But  when  they  perceived  that  his 
family  continued  unharmed,  and  finally  were  able  with- 
out evil  consequences  to  eat  fruit  of  banana  trees  culti- 
vated on  this  ground,  they  concluded  that  the  God  of 
the  missionaries  was  able  to  resist  their  gods. 

The  history  of  this  island  is,  like  that  of  the  other 
New  Hebrides,  a  story  of  sufferings,  privations  and  dan- 
gers experienced  among  the  squalid  and  barbarous 
natives  and  amid  the  fearful  hurricanes  that  occasionally 
occurred,  and  also  of  wonderful  deliverances,  and  of 
signal  successes  in  the  mission  work.  As  on  Tanna,  the 
savages  many  times  sought  to  take  Mr.  Paton's  life  and 
to  burn  his  buildings,  but  by  the  vigilance  of  friendly 
natives,  and  by  his  own  sagacity  and  presence  of  mind, 
he  escaped.  His  first  church,  almost  as  soon  as  built, 
was  torn  to  pieces  by  a  hurricane ;  his  house  also  was 
destroyed,  and  he  with  his  family  escaped  only  by  taking 
refuge  in  their  cellar. 

Mr.  Paton  gained  a  great  advantage  by  founding  an 
orphan  school,  from  which  many  teachers  and  preachers 
went  forth  who  did  excellent  work  in  this  and  other 
islands  of  the  group.  Three  years  after  his  arrival  he 
received  to  the  Lord's  Supper  twelve  natives,  the  most 
of  whom  had  been  murderers  and  cannibals.  Finally 
the  whole  population  embraced  Christianity. 

In  September,  1892,  Mr.  Paton  went  to  the  United 
States  to  apply  for  an  international  contract  -forbidding 
the  sale  of  ardent  spirits  and  fire-arms  to  the  natives  of 
New  Hebrides,  and  also  forbidding  the  continuance  of 
the  ''Kanaka  traffic,"  or  slave-trade,  by  which  one  third 


MELANESIA.  433 

of  the  natives  of  those  islands  have  been  transported  to 
Australia  and  the  Fijis.  On  his  arrival  in  San  Francisco 
the  writer  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  him.  He  was 
then  venerable  in  appearance,  about  seventy  years  of 
age,  with  a  long  white  beard  and  hair  and  a  kindly  beam- 
ing eye ;  in  looks  and  manner  a  veritable  missionary 
apostle.  He  made  a  profound  impression  by  mission- 
ary appeals  in  the  United  States.  Rev.  F.  A.  Noble, 
D.  D. ,  of  Chicago,  said  :  ' ( Whoever  has  seen  him  has 
been  drawn  to  him  in  trust  and  admiration.  Whoever 
has  heard  him,  whether  in  parlor  or  pulpit  or  on  the 
platform,  will  never  forget  him.  He  is  a  man  of  God, 
full  of  faith  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  devout,  tender,  sweet, 
humble,  loyal  to  the  truth,  and  consecrated  in  every 
pulse  and  power  of  his  being  to  the  service  of  Christ." 

There  are  now  in  the  New  Hebrides  18  ordained 
missionaries  and  120  evangelists.  The  islands,  Aneit- 
yum,  Aniwa,  Erromanga,  Fate",  Nguna,  Metoso,  Maku- 
ru  and  Emae,  are  almost  entirely  Christian.  Missionaries 
are  located  on  the  other  islands,  and  meeting  with  suc- 
cess. The  Bible  has  been  more  or  less  translated  into 
fifteen  languages  of  this  group. 

In  the  Loyalty,  Santa  Cruz,  Solomon,  and  other  isl- 
ands further  west,  mission  work  has  been  conducted  by 
the  Melanesian  Society  of  the  Anglican  Church  of  New 
Zealand.  The  method  of  this  society  has  been  to  gather 
bands  of  young  men  from  the  various  islands,  educate 
them  at  Norfolk  Island,  and  finally  send  them  as  mis- 
sionaries to  their  respective  homes.  Bishop  John  C. 
Patteson,  while  engaged  in  this  work,  was  murdered  at 


434  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

Nakapu,  of  the  Swallow  group,  in  retaliation  for  atrocities 
of  traders.  The  report  of  this  society  for  1888  shows 
766  baptisms,  145  teachers,  and  2,514  scholars. 

The  south-eastern  portion  of  New  Guinea,  under  the 
government  of  Great  Britain,  was  entered  by  the  Lon- 
don Missionary  Society  in  1872;  and  they  report  12 
churches  organized,  500  natives  baptized,  and  2,000 
children  received  into  schools.  This  promises  to  be  one 
of  the  most  successful  and  important*  missions  of  the 
Pacific  ;  but  it  is  almost  too  soon  to  narrate  its  history. 

When  we  consider  the  degraded  condition  of  the 
people  of  these  islands,  the  extreme  difficulty  of  com- 
municating with  them,  through  their  many  languages,  the 
indescribable  sufferings  and  numerous  deaths  of  the  mis- 
sionaries by  hurricanes,  malarial  fevers  and  the  ferocity 
of  the  natives,  we  must  regard  the  missionary  enterprise 
among  them  as  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  displays 
of  heroism  of  modern  times,  and  the  uplifting  of  this 
degraded  race  as  one  of  the  greatest  illustrations  of  the 
far-reaching  love  and  divine  power  of  Christ. 


PITCAIRN  AND   NORFOLK   ISLANDS.          435 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

PITCAIRN    AND    NORFOLK    ISLANDS. 

THE  desperate  adventurers  who  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  last  century  settled  on  Pitcairn  Island  led  a  life  of 
more  romantic  interest,  more  tragic  events,  and  more 
remarkable  consequences,  than  that  of  the  so-called 
Robinson  Crusoe,  who  was  described  as  residing  on  the 
neighboring  island  of  Juan  Fernandez.  Though  the 
story  of  these  adventurers  does  not  strictly  belong  to 
mission  history,  it  seems  to  be  necessary  to  give  it  in 
this  book  in  order  to  complete  the  history  of  the 
"changes  from  the  old  to  the  new  in  the  Pacific." 

After  the  return  of  Capt.  Cook  from  his  voyages  of 
exploration  in  this  part  of  the  world,  the  British  govern- 
ment determined  to  introduce  the  breadfruit  trees,  of 
which  marvellous  accounts  were  given,  into  the  West 
Indies,  and  for  this  purpose  sent  Lieut.  William  Bligh 
to  procure  them  from  Tahiti.  Lieut.  Bligh  had  formerly 
visited  the  Pacific  as  captain  of  the  Resolution,  under 
Capt.  Cook.  He  sailed  from  England  on  the  23d  of 
December,  1777,  in  the  war-sloop  Bounty,  with  forty- 
four  seamen,  a  botanist,  and  a  gardener,  and  arrived  in 
Tahiti  in  the  following  October.  Remaining  there  six 
months,  he  carefully  stored  his  ship  with  over  a  thousand 
breadfruit  trees,  planted  in  800  tubs  and  boxes,  and  then 
in  April,  1779,  set  sail  for  the  West  Indies. 


436  THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

One  would  have  thought  that,  after  their  long  exile 
from  England,  these  seamen  would  have  been  delighted 
to  be  "homeward  bound;"  but  they  had  become  de- 
moralized with  the  enchantments  of  Tahiti,  and  were 
impatient  under  the  severity  of  their  commander  and  the 
tiresome  routine  of  sea-faring  life.  Their  commander, 
Lieut.  Bligh,  seems  to  have  been  a  pious  man,  and  he 
doubtless  had  reason  for  exercising  severity  towards 
them,  as  some  of  them  were  desperate  men  ;  but  he 
certainly  was  unwise  in  his  methods  of  discipline. 

The  foremost  one  to  revolt  against  him  was  his  mate, 
Fletcher  Christian,  who  had  been  with  him  on  a  former 
voyage  and  was  under  pecuniary  obligations  to  him. 
Christian  came  from  a  respectable  family  in  England, 
being  a  brother  of  Prof.  Christian,  the  annotator  of 
Blackstone's  Commentaries,  and  he  had  a  wife  and  chil- 
dren in  England.  He  therefore  had  everything  to  lose 
by  committing  crime.  But  he  was  exasperated  because 
Lieut.  Bligh  often  made  taunting  allusions  to  his  indebt- 
edness and  now  charged  him  with  pilfering  from  the 
ship's  supply  of  cocoanuts.  Upset  by  these  annoyances, 
as  a  ship  without  ballast  may  capsize  in  the  lightest 
squalls,  he  resolved  to  desert  the  ship.  As  he  was  about 
to  do  this  on  a  raft,  on  the  28th  of  April,  while  the 
ship  was  near  Tofoa,  of  the  Tonga  group,  he  confided  his 
plan  to  a  shipmate,  and  this  man  advised  him  rather  to 
undertake  to  capture  the  ship  and  return  to  Tahiti. 
Strange  to  say,  this  mad  proposition  pleased  him  ;  and 
he  at  once  suggested  it  to  many  of  the  crew.  They 
agreed  to  it,  some  from  desire  to  return  to  sensual  life  at 


PITCA1RN  AND  NORFOLK  ISLANDS.          437 

Tahiti,  and  others  from  fear  of  being  in  the  weaker  party 
on  the  ship.  Thinking  that  "if  it  were  to  be  done,  it 
were  well  it  were  done  quickly,"  they  lost  no  time  in 
acting  on  this  proposition.  Christian  with  three  men 
seized  Lieut.  Bligh  when  he  was  asleep  in  his  berth  ; 
and  the  other  conspirators-  seized  the  officers.  Lieut. 
Bligh  broke  away,  and  sprang  upon  the  upper  deck,  and 
called  for  help  to  put  down  the  mutiny  ;  but  he  was 
quickly  overcome,  and  with  his  officers  and  special 
friends,  nineteen  in  number,  placed  in  the  launch.  This 
was  a  boat  twenty-three  feet  long,  and  six  feet  nine  inches 
broad,  and  had  a  mast  and  sails.  The  mutineers  put  into 
this  boat  150  pounds  of  bread,  thirty-two  pounds  of 
pork,  twenty-eight  gallons  of  water,  six  bottles  of  wine, 
six  gallons  of  rum,  a  compass,  a  quadrant  and  four  cut- 
lasses, and  set  the  boat  adrift. 

It  will  be  of  interest  to  briefly  consider  the  adven- 
tures of  that  little  company  in  this  boat  before  proceed- 
ing with  the  history  of  the  mutineers.  So  many  men  in 
so  small  a  boat  were  uncomfortably  crowded  ;  the  boat 
was  weighted  down  to  within  six  inches  of  the  water ; 
the  wind  was  strong,  the  sea  high,  and  it  was  necessary 
to  continually  bale  out  water  from  the  boat  to  keep  it 
afloat.  They  steered  for  the  island,  Tofoa,  which  was 
thirty  miles  distant ;  but  as  they  drew  near  to  it  they 
found  that  its  shores  were  high  and  lashed  with  a  tre- 
mendous surf.  They  therefore  sailed  around  to  the  lee- 
ward, or  northwest,  side  of  the  island,  and  there  entered 
a  cove  and  anchored. 

On  going  ashore  to  search  for  food  and  water  they 


43^  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

found  that  only  a  few  cocoanuts  could  be  obtained,  and 
that  with  peril,  from  trees  on  the  cliffs,  and  that  water 
was  scarce ;  but  climbing  the  precipices  to  the  interior 
of  the  island  they  met  two  natives,  who  gave  them  a 
little  food  and  water.  As  the  storm  continued  they  re- 
mained in  this  cove  several  days,  and  were  visited  by  the 
natives  bringing  cocoanuts  for  barter.  Finally  a  great 
multitude  of  the  natives  gathered  around  them,  and 
showed  by  their  insolence,  and  by  knocking  together 
stones  in  their  hands,  that  they  meditated  violence. 
Bligh  therefore  suddenly  ordered  his  men  to  rush  with 
him  to  the  boat,  and  all  but  one  succeeded  in  doing  so. 
This  one  made  the  mistake  of  running  along  the  shore, 
and  was  pursued  by  the  savages  and  clubbed  to  death. 

The  white  men  now  had  considerable  difficulty  to 
loose  from  their  anchor,  and  this  gave  the  natives  time 
to  fetch  their  canoes  and  pursue  them.  Paddling  to- 
wards them  the  natives  hurled  stones  upon  them,  and 
finally  were  about  to  lay  hold  of  the  boat  when  Lieut. 
Bligh  threw  overboard  some  articles  of  clothing.  The 
natives  stopped  so  long  to  pick  up  these  that  the  boat 
got  a  considerable  distance  away.  As  night  was  coming 
on  the  natives  then  returned  to  the  island. 

Lieut.  Bligh  and  his  companions  now  resolved  not  to 
again  risk  themselves  among  savages,  but  to  endeavor  to 
reach  some  civilized  settlement ;  and  to  make  their  pro- 
visions hold  out  for  a  long  voyage  they  limited  them- 
selves to  an  allowance  of  an  ounce  of  bread  and  one- 
fourth  of  a  pint  of  water  per  day  for  each  man.  Bligh 
measured  out  the  allowance  for  each  meal  very  accu- 


PITCAIRN  AND   NORFOLK  ISLANDS.          439 

rately  by  means  of  a  pair  of  scales  which  he  made  out  of 
two  cocoanut-shells,  while  a  pistol  bullet  (of  twenty-five 
to  the  pound)  served  as  a  weight.  The  sea  continued 
many  days  very  rough,  with  squalls  of  wind  and  rain, 
and  several  heavy  thunder-storms  occurred,  by  which 
they  were  thoroughly  chilled  and  nearly  swamped  ;  but 
they  thereby  caught  twenty  gallons  of  water,  which  saved 
them  from  dying  with  thirst. 

Lieut.  Bligh  composed  a  prayer,  partly  from  his  recol- 
lection of  the  prayer-book,  for  use  on  this  voyage,  and 
wrote  it  in  a  blank  signal-book  which  is  now  extant.  It 
contained  confessions  of  sins,  invocations  of  God's  help, 
and  thanks  for  his  mercies,  and  was  often  repeated  by 
the  party.  He  also  kept  a  brief  journal  of  their  expe- 
riences. 

Several  times  they  passed  close  to  islands,  and  once 
they  were  pursued  by  two  large  canoes  filled  with  canni- 
bals, and  barely  succeeded  in  escaping.  Their  situation 
was  anything  but  comfortable,  with  "sharks  beneath, 
cannibals  behind,  and  storms  above "  !  As  they  passed 
along  the  northern  coast  of  Australia  they  entered  a  bay 
and  landed  on  a  little  island,  and  obtained  abundance  of 
water  and  feasted  on  shell-fish.  On  the  i4th  of  June 
they  arrived  at  the  Dutch  settlement  at  Coupon,  on  the 
island  of  Timore,  having  been  forty-seven  days  in  their 
little  open  boat,  voyaging  4,000  miles.  The  Dutch 
governor,  William  Adrian  Von  Este,  received  them  very 
kindly  and  provided  for  them. 

Lieut.  Bligh  arrived  again  in  England  on  the  2$d  of 
March,  1790,  and  reported  the  mutiny  ;  and  the  war-ship 


440  THE    ISLANDS  OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

Pandora  was  sent  to  arrest  the  mutineers.  Bligh  was 
promoted  by  the  British  government  and  commanded  a 
ship  under  Nelson.  He  was  afterwards  appointed  gov- 
ernor of  New  South  Wales,  and  ultimately  became  a 
vice-admiral. 

Turning  now  to  the  history  of  the  mutineers,  we  find 
that,  after  setting  the  boat  adrift,  they  sailed  for  two 
hours  in  a  westerly  direction,  to  prevent  the  company  in 
the  boat  from  knowing  whither  they  were  going,  and 
then  went  to  Tubuai,  of  the  Austral  group.  The  natives 
of  this  island  resisted  their  attempt  to  land,  and  they 
therefore  went  to  Tahiti  to  procure  interpreters.  They 
informed  the  Tahitians  that  the  commander  and  officers 
of  their  ship  had  found  an  island  suitable  for  settlement, 
and  had  sent  them  to  procure  provisions.  Believing  this 
story,  the  Tahitians  supplied  them  bountifully  with  fruit, 
vegetables  and  hogs,  and  even  gave  back  to  them  a  bull 
and  cow  that  Lieut.  Bligh  had  presented  to  them.  The 
mutineers  then  returned  to  Tubuai  and  were  permitted 
to  land.  They  at  once  set  about  constructing  a  fort  for 
defence ;  but  the  natives  got  the  idea  that  it  was  de- 
signed for  a  tomb  for  themselves,  and  suddenly  attacked 
them  and  drove  them  to  their  ship. 

Christian  now  proposed  that  they  should  go  to  some 
uninhabited  island,  where  they  would  be  safe  from  mo- 
lestation, but  several  of  them  objected.  They  therefore 
returned  to  Tahiti,  and  there  put  on  shore  those  who 
so  desired,  and  divided  to  them  part  of  the  stores  of  the 
ship.  Thirteen  of  these  men  who  settled  on  Tahiti  were 
arrested  by  the  frigate  Pandora  in  March,  1791.  This 


PITCAIRN  AND   NORFOLK  ISLANDS.         441 

frigate  was  wrecked  in  the  following  August  on  a  coral 
reef  near  Australia,  and  four  of  .the  mutineers  with  thirty 
of  the  crew  went  down  with  her.  The  remainder  of  the 
crew  took  the  surviving  mutineers  a  thousand  miles  in 
open  boats,  and  obtained  passsage  for  them  and  them- 
selves to  England.  These  mutineers  were  tried  in  the 
English  courts,  and  two  of  them  were  hung. 

The  mutineers  who  remained  on  the  ship  invited 
some  native  women  to  a  farewell  banquet,  and  then  sud- 
denly put  to  sea,  keeping  them  and  six  native  men  on 
board.  They  then  sailed,  by  Christian's  advice,  to  Pit- 
cairn  Island,  and  landed  at  its  northwestern  extremity  in 
a  little  bay,  which  they  named  Bounty  Bay.  In  going 
ashore  through  the  surf  they  carried  an  infant  daughter 
of  one  of  their  Tahitian  women  in  a  barrel  to  protect  her 
from  the  ocean  spray.  They  then  took  everything  they 
desired  from  the  ship  and  set  it  on  fire,  that  it  might  not 
be  a  means  of  their  being  discovered. 

Pitcairn  Island,  which  they  had  now  made  their 
home,  was  discovered  by  the  English  captain,  Philip 
Carteret,  on  the  2d  of  July,  1767,  and  by  him  named 
Pitcairn  after  a  midshipman  who  was  the  first  to  see  it. 
It  is  situated  at  latitude  25°  south  and  longitude  1300 
west,  and  is  part  of  the  Pearl,  or  Tuamotu,  group,  being 
one  hundred  miles  south  of  Oeno,  of  this  group.  It  is 
five  and  a  half  miles  in  circumference  and  two  and  a  half 
in  diameter,  and  rises  at  its  highest  point  in  a  central 
ridge  1,109  feet  above  the  ocean.  At  its  northern  ex- 
tremity there  is  another  peak  that  faces  Bounty  Bay  with 
great  precipices.  This  island  has  no  coral  reef,  but  its 


442  THE  ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

shores  rise  abruptly  in  steep  and  rugged  basaltic  cliffs, 
which  preclude  the  possibility  of  landing  except  at  two 
or  three  points.  Near  the  bay  is  a  plateau  of  fertile  land 
of  four  hundred  feet  elevation  above  the  ocean,  and  be- 
yond this  there  is  a  little  valley.  Water  is  scarce,  and 
for  this  reason  it  is  customary  to  collect  it  in  tanks 
during  times  of  rain. 

At  the  latitude  of  Pitcairn  cocoanut  and  breadfruit 
trees  do  not  thrive  well ;  but  bananas,  oranges,  pine- 
apples, and  the  yam,  sweet-potato,  and  taro,  have  been 
successfully  cultivated  on  this  island.  When  the 
mutineers  arrived  there  was  here  a  luxuriant  vegeta- 
tion of  palms,  pandanus,  and  grand  banyan  trees  ;  and 
brilliant  vines  overran  the  rocks  and  hung  veils  of  beauty 
adown  the  faces  of  the  precipices.  The  island  seemed 
to  be  just  the  place  they  desired,  a  place  where  they 
might  realize  the  poet's  dream  of  uninterrupted  enjoy- 
ment : 

"  Never  comes  the  trader,  never  floats  a  European  flag. 
Slides  the  bird  o'er  lustrous  woodland,  swings  the  trailer  from  the 
crag. 

Here  the  passions,  cramped  no  longer,  should  have  scope  and 

breathing  space. 
They  would  take  their  savage  women ;    these  should  rear  their 

dusky  race. 

Iron-jointed,  supple-sinewed,  they  should  dive,  and  they  should  run* 
Catch  the  wild  goats  by  the  hair  and  hurl  their  lances  in  the  sun." 

But  there  were  elements  in  the  characters  of  these 
men  that  made  an  elysium  for  them  impossible.  The 
restless  waters  that  beat  on  the  shores  of  their  island 
were  not  more  turbulent  than  the  passions  that  surged 


V,i  »  •«  «t  re  y, 

OP   THR 

UNIVERSITY 


PITCAIRN  AND  NORFOLK  ISLANDS.          445 

in  their  minds,   and  were  yet  to  change  their  paradise 
into  a  hell. 

The  number  of  people  who  first  settled  here  was 
twenty-eight.  It  consisted  of  nine  white  men,  four 
Tahitian  men,  two  Austral  men,  twelve  Tahitian  women 
and  one  infant  Tahitian  girl.  The  names  of  the  white 
men  were  Fletcher  Christian,  John  Mills,  Isaac  Martin, 
William  Brown,  Matthew  Quintal,  John  Williams,  Ed- 
ward Young,  William  McCoy,  and  John  Adams,  whose 
name  in  the  ship  records  was  Alexander  Smith. 

For  a  few  days  these  people  lived  in  tents  while  they 
were  building  houses,  which  they  erected  on  the  plateau 
near  the  bay.  Then  they  began  to  clear  the  land  for 
cultivation,  and  divided  it  among  themselves.  They 
gave  no  land  to  the  natives,  and  the  natives  quietly  sub- 
mitted, as  they  expected  to  be  only  servants  to  the 
whites.  In  clearing  the  land  the  mutineers  left  a  row  of 
trees  between  the  village  and  the  sea,  to  conceal  the 
houses  from  passing  ships.  They  also  left  a  cluster  of 
trees  at  the  mouth  of  a  cave  in  a  secluded  part  of  the 
island,  as  they  proposed  to  hide  there  in  case  they  should 
be  pursued. 

For  two  years  this  little  community  lived  in  peace, 
cultivating  the  ground  with  seeds  and  plants  they  had 
brought  from  Tahiti,  and  providing  themselves  with 
whatever  they  could  contrive  for  their  comfort.  Then 
there  began  a  struggle  among  them  that  reminds  one  of 
the  war  that  Rev.  John  Williams  found  at  Hervey  Island, 
by  which  the  population  of  that  island  was  reduced 
from  two  thousand  to  seven.  In  this  struggle  there  was 


446  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

an  illustration  of  the  proverb  that  there  is  generally  a 
woman  in  every  trouble ;  for  the  occeasion  of  the  con- 
troversy was  the  death  of  Williams'  wife,  who  fell  from  a 
precipice  while  collecting  birds'  eggs.  Williams  demand- 
ed that  another  wife  should  be  given  to  him,  and  finally 
appropriated  a  wife  of  one  of  the  native  men.  Then  the 
natives  conspired  to  kill  all  the  whites.  They  would 
have  succeeded  in  doing  so  if  the  women  had  not  di- 
vulged the  plot  by  singing  the  words, 

"  Why  does  black  man  sharpen  axe  ? 
To  kill  white  men." 

Hearing  this  song,  Christian  seized  his  gun  and  went 
in  search  of  the  native  men.  Finding  one  of  them  he  dis- 
charged his  gun,  loaded  only  with  powder,  to  show  that 
the  plot  was  discovered.  The  native  then  fled  to  the 
woods,  and  soon  with  the  other  natives  sued  for  pardon. 
This  was  granted  on  condition  that  they  would  kill  two 
of  their  ringleaders.  One  of  these,  the  husband  of  the 
woman  Williams  had  taken,  was  killed,  horrible  to  tell, 
by  this  woman  herself,  and  the  other  by  other  natives. 

For  two  years  now  there  was  peace  on  the  island  ; 
but  the  situation  was  anything  but  delightful.  Desper- 
adoes such  as  these  and  their  savage  wives  could  not 
long  continue  in  tranquil  enjoyment.  Often  were  to  be 
heard  the  loud  altercations  of  the  men  contending  with 
each  other,  or  the  screams  of  the  women  receiving  chas- 
tisement from  their  husbands.  Always  the  men  were 
in  painful  anxiety  lest  their  retreat  should  be  discovered 
and  they  taken  to  punishment.  Much  of  the  time  one 
of  their  number  sat  on  a  high  rock,  called  "Lookout 


PITCAIRN  AND  NORFOLK  ISLANDS.  447 

Rock, "  watching  for  any  war-vessel  that  might  approach 
to  search  for  them.  As  they  passed  tedious  hours  in 
this  way  they  suffered  from  the  monotony  of  their  life, 
homesick  desire  for  the  friends  from  whom  they  had 
been  long  separated,  remorse  for  the  crimes  they  had 
committed,  and  dread  of  the  retribution  that  surely 
awaited  them.  They  had  sought  low  sensual  pleasures, 
but  now  they  found  these  as  unsatisfactory  as  the  brine 
of  the  sea  to  the  thirst ;  they  had  fled  from  civilization, 
but  they  needed  to  fly  from  themselves ;  and  they  could 
no  more  escape  from  trouble  than  withdraw  their  island 
from  the  ocean  that  surrounded  it. 

The  oppressive  conduct  of  two  of  the  men,  Quintal 
and  McCoy,  finally  moved  the  natives  to  conspire  again 
to  destroy  all  the  whites.  Taking  some  guns,  with  the 
pretense  of  shooting  hogs,  they  shot  Christian,  as  he  was 
at  work  in  his  yam  patch,  and  then  killed  four  of  the 
other  men.  There  now  remained  only  four  white  men 
on  the  island  :  Adams,  Quintal,  Young  and  McCoy. 
These  with  the  aid  of  the  women  killed  the  remaining 
native  men,  completing  the  terrible  work  on  the  3d  of 
October  1793.  The  next  tragic  event  was  the  death 
of  McCoy,  who  distilled  intoxicating  liquor  from 
the  sweet  roots  of  the  Ti  plant  (draccena  terminalis), 
and  in  a  delirium  of  drunkenness  threw  himself  over  a 
precipice.  Not  long  after  this  Quintal  lost  his  wife  by 
her  falling  over  a  precipice  while  hunting  birds'  eggs. 
Forgetful  of  the  former  trouble  that  originated  from  such 
a  cause,  he  then  insisted  on  taking  one  of  the  wives  of 
the  other  two  men.  Fearing  that  he  would  kill  them 


THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

to  accomplish  his  purpose  they  attacked  him,  and 
after  a  desperate  struggle  killed  him  with  an  axe.  Thus 
all  but  two  of  the  white  men  came  to  sudden  and  vio- 
lent deaths — terrible  retibutions,  it  would  seem,  for  the 
mutiny  they  had  committed  ten  years  before. 

There  were  now  on  the  island  the  two  surviving  men, 
Adams  and  Young,  ten  women  and  twenty-three  chil- 
dren. In  the  greater  quiet  that  prevailed,  these  men 
now  meditated  on  their  responsibility  in  the  care  of  these 
people  and  on  the  terrible  wickedness  of  their  lives. 
Adams  was  first  moved  to  this  meditation  by  a  dream. 
The  remembrance  of  religious  instruction  received  in 
childhood  had  remained  under  all  his  wild  career,  like 
a  spark  buried  under  ashes,  and  now  burst  into  flame. 
Finding  a  Bible  and  prayer-book  that  had  been  pre- 
served from  the  ship,  he  and  Young  endeavored  to 
give  the  little  company  under  their  care  religious  instruc- 
tion. But  Young  did  not  long  survive  to  aid  in  this 
work  :  in  the  following  year,  1800,  he  died  from  asthma. 

Adams  now,  with  genuine  repentance  of  his  former 
evil  life,  devoted  himself  to  the  religious  education  of 
the  women  and  children.  It  was  just  the  time  when 
such  education  could  be  most  successfully  given  to  the 
the  children,  for  the  oldest  of  them  was  not  over  ten 
years  of  age  ;  and  the  situation  in  this  secluded  island, 
away  from  the  contaminating  influences  of  evil  society, 
was  as  favorable  for  their  training  as  that  of  the  most 
isolated  monasteries  or  nunneries. 

After  this,  the  little  colony  on  this  island  led  a  quiet, 
peaceful  and  virtuous  life.  They  began  and  closed 


m 


PARLIAMENT  OF  PITCAIRN  ISLAND. 

By  permission,  from  "  The  Story  of  Pitcairn. 


PITCAIRN  AVENUE. 

By  permission,  from  "  The  Story  of  Pitcairn." 


PITCAIRN   AND   NORFOLK   ISLANDS.          451 

each  day  with  prayer  and  praise  to  God.  They  spent 
much  time  in  labor,  the  men  cultivating  the  fields,  fish- 
ing in  the  surrounding  ocean,  constructing  houses  and 
canoes,  and  hunting  wild  goats  and  hogs,  the  women 
making  cloth  from  the  bark  of  the  paper-mulberry,  and 
mats  and  hats  from  palm  and  pandanus  leaves.  In  pro- 
cess of  time  the  patriarch  Adams  was  called  to  perform 
wedding  ceremonies  for  the  young  people  that  grew  up. 
Rings,  ingeniously  fashioned  out  of  sea-shells,  were  used 
to  seal  the  marriage  vows,  and  new  cottages  were  built 
for  the  new  families.  The  little  village  thus  enlarged  on 
the  plateau  became  very  attractive,  with  embowering 
palm,  banana  and  cocoanut  trees,  a  grand  banyan  at  one 
extremity,  the  great  mountain  peak  standing  guard  near 
by,  and  a  magnificent  outlook  over  the  ocean. 

Eight  years  were  thus  passed  in  utter  seclusion  from 
the  outside  world,  and  then  a  startling  event  occurred  : 
a  ship  arrived  ;  the  first  ship  that  had  visited  the  island 
since  the  mutiny.  Twenty  years  had  passed  without  the 
civilized  world  knowing  anything  about  the  mutineers  or 
their  descendants.  To  the  young  Pitcairners  this  ship 
was  about  as  wonderful  as  Capt.  Cook's  ships  to  the  Ha- 
waiians,  who  thought  them  islands  covered  with  trees. 
A  young  woman  ran  to  Adams  telling  him  that  an  upset 
shed,  with  its  roof  in  the  water  and  its  posts  standing 
mid-air,  was  floating  towards  the  island.  He  at  once 
understood  that  a  ship  was  coming.  It  was  the  Topaz,  of 
Nantucket,  Capt.  Mayhew  Folger,  on  a  sealing  voyage  to 
the  South  Pacific.  It  arrived  at  Pitcairn  on  the  7th  of 
February,  1808.  Capt.  Folger  was  surprised  to  see 
21 


452  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

smoke  rising  from  the  island,  for  it  had  been  reported 
to  be  uninhabited.  He  despatched  two  boats  to  search 
on  the  shore  for  seals ;  as  these  boats  approached  the 
land  they  were  met  by  three  men  in  a  canoe.  The  men 
spoke  English,  and  stated  that  there  was  a  white  man  on 
the  island.  Capt.  Folger  and  his  crew  were  cordially 
welcomed  and  delightfully  entertained  by  the  Pitcairners. 
On  returning  to  England  Capt.  Folger  reported  his  dis- 
covery of  the  descendants  of  the  mutineers,  describing 
them  as  "a  very  humane  and  hospitable  people,"  and 
Adams  as  "  a  reformed  and  worthy  man." 

For  six  more  years  this  island  remained  in  isolation 
from  the  rest  of  the  world  ;  and  then  the  British  war- 
ships Briton  and  Tagus  arrived  on  their  way  from  the  Mar- 
quesas to  Valparaiso.  The  people  on  these  ships  were 
surprised  to  see  well-constructed  houses  and  cultivated 
fields  on  the  island ;  and  still  more  were  they  surprised 
when  two  young  men,  who  paddled  off  in  a  canoe,  called 
out  in  English,  "Wont  you  heave  us  a  rope  now?" 
The  young  men  were  cordially  received  on  board  the 
ships.  One  of  them  gave  his  name  as  Thursday  October 
Christian,  a  name  given  to  commemorate  the  time  of  his 
birth.  He  was  "a  tall,  handsome  young  man,  about 
twenty-four  years  of  age.  His  scanty  clothing  consisted 
of  a  waist-cloth,  while  he  wore  a  broad-brimmed  straw 
hat  adorned  with  black  cocks'  feathers."  His  compan- 
ion, George  Young,  was  ' '  a  fine  noble-looking  youth, 
seventeen  or  eighteen  years  of  age. "  These  young  men 
were  invited  into  the  cabin  and  to  a  repast.  Before  par- 
taking of  food  they  rose  and  reverently  asked  the  divine 


PITCAIRN  AND   NORFOLK   ISLANDS.          453 

blessing.  The  people  on  the  ships  were  much  amused 
at  their  curious  inquiries  about  whatever  they  saw  on 
the  ship.  Seeing  a  cow,  they  inquired  whether  it  was 
a  "huge  goat  or  a  horned  sow."  John  Adams  had 
resolved  to  give  himself  up  to  these  ships  for  trial  by 
the  British  government ;  but  the  Tahitian  women  en- 
treated so  earnestly  with  tears  that  he  should  not  be 
taken  from  them  that  he  was  permitted  to  remain  on 
the  island. 

In  October,  1823,  the  English  whaleship  Cyrus, 
Capt.  Hall,  visited  this  island,  and  at  Adams'  request  left 
on  shore  a  young  man,  by  the  name  of  John  Buffett,  to 
assist  in  instructing  the  children.  A  friend  of  Buffett, 
John  Evans,  nineteen  years  old,  at  the  same  time  de- 
serted the  ship,  hiding  in  a  hollow  tree,  and  remained  on 
the  island.  It  became  apparent  soon  after  why  he  had 
left  the  ship.  He  asked  the  hand  of  Adams'  daughter. 
The  old  man  hesitated  to  give  her  to  a  stranger,  and 
referred  the  matter  to  the  young  woman.  She  replied, 
"Try  it,  Daddy."  They  were  then  married.  Buffett 
also  was  married,  obtaining  for  his  bride  Dorothy,  a 
daughter  of  Edward  Young.  About  this  time  a  way- 
ward daughter  of  Quintal  was  so  harshly  treated  by  her 
brother  that  she  went  on  a  passing  ship  to  Rurutu,  of 
the  Austral  group,  and  there  became  the  wife  of  a  chief, 
and  reared  a  numerous  family.  It  was  this  woman  that 
in  1833  applied  to  Alexander  and  Whitney,  of  the  Ha- 
waiian Islands,  when  they  were  visiting  Rurutu,  to 
baptize  her  children.  (See  Chapter  V.) 

A  very  interesting  account  has  been  given  by  Capt. 


454  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

F.  W.  Beechey  of  a  visit  he  made  to  Pitcairn  in  the 
British  war-ship  Blossom  in  1825.  Adams,  then  sixty- 
five  years  old,  went  on  board  this  ship,  the  first  he  had 
boarded  since  the  mutiny,  and  persuaded  the  captain  to 
marry  him  to  his  wife.  He  was  described  as  "a  bald, 
corpulent  man,  dressed  in  a  sailor's  shirt,  trowsers,  and 
a  low-crowned  hat. "  At  that  time  there  were  sixty-one 
persons  on  the  island,  of  whom  twenty-six  were  adults 
and  thirty-five  children.  Like  the  other  descendants  of 
white  men  married  to  Polynesian  women,  they  were  a 
fine  handsome  people,  of  tall  stature,  well-proportioned, 
and  very  vigorous.  The  average  height  of  the  men  was 
five  feet  and  nine  inches.  "The  women  also  were 
above  the  common  height ;  they  were  muscular  from 
climbing  the  mountains ;  their  complexion  was  fairer 
than  that  of  the  men,  and  of  a  gypsy  color,  their  hair 
was  dark  and  glossy,  and  hung  over  their  shoulders  in 
long  waving  tresses,  that  were  nicely  oiled,  tastefully 
turned  back  from  the  forehead  and  temples,  and  bound 
in  place  by  chaplets  of  red  and  white  aromatic  blos- 
soms." 

Capt.  Beecher  and  his  officers  were  very  cordially 
entertained  by  the  Pitcairners  two  days  on  shore.  They 
were  feasted  on  pigs,  chickens,  yams  and  sweet  pota- 
toes that  had  been  cooked  in  the  earth,  wrapped  with 
hot  stones  in  ti  leaves.  At  nightfall  torches  of  kukui  nuts, 
strung  on  the  midrib  of  the  cocoanut  leaf,  were  lighted 
in  the  houses,  and  religious  worship  was  conducted. 
The  bedding  in  which  they  slept  consisted  of  mats  and 
cloth  made  from  the  wauki,  or  paper-mulberry  tree. 


PITCAIRN  AND   NORFOLK  ISLANDS.          455 

Capt.  Beechey  found  that  the  people  were  all  thoroughly 
versed  in  Bible  history,  and  described  them  as  "guileless 
and  unsophisticated  beyond  conception/' 

In  the  year  1828  a  Mr.  George  Huns  Nobbs,  who 
had  led  an  adventurous  life,  having  been  a  midshipman 
in  the  British  navy,  a  captive  in  Spain,  and  there  a  while 
under  sentence  of  death  till  released  by  exchange  of  pris- 
oners, and  haring  gone  four  times  round  the  world,  at- 
tracted by  the  accounts  he  read  of  Pitcairn  Island  started 
to  go  thither  from  London.  On  his  way  he  arrived  at 
Valparaiso,  and  obtained  a  boat,  in  which  with  one 
companion  he  made  the  voyage  of  2,000  miles  to  Pit- 
cairn.  Old  Adams  welcomed  him,  and  perceiving  that 
he  was  a  worthy  and  well-educated  man  employed  him 
as  a  school  teacher,  and  finally  as  a  minister  of  the  gos- 
pel. He  was  married  to  Sarah  Christian,  a  grand- 
daughter of  the  mutineer  Fletcher  Christian,  and  the 
materials  of  his  boat  were  used  to  construct  a  house  for 
him. 

For  many  years  the  remuneration  Mr.  Nobbs  re- 
ceived for  his  services  was  very  scanty,  so  poor  were 
the  islanders.  In  1844  he  thus  wrote  to  a  clergyman  in 
Valparaiso:  "My  stock  of  clothing  which  I  brought 
from  England  is,  as  you  may  suppose,  very  nearly  ex- 
hausted, and  I  have  no  friends  there  to  whom  I  can 
with  propriety  apply  for  more.  Until  the  last  three 
years  it  was  my  custom  to  wear  a  black  coat  on  the 
Sabbath  ;  but  since  that  period  I  have  been  obliged  to 
substitute  a  nankeen  jacket  of  my  own  making.  My 
only  remaining  coat,  which  is  quite  threadbare,  is  re- 


456  THE  ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

served  for  marriages  and  burials  ;  so  that  it  is  customary 
to  say  when  a  wedding  is  going  to  take  place,  '  Teach- 
er, you  will  have  to  put  on  your  coat  next  Sunday/ 
which  is  equivalent  to  informing  me  that  a  couple  are 
to  be  married."  He  was  afterwards  very  kindly  and 
abundantly  provided  for  both  by  the  islanders  and  by 
friends  abroad. 

After  the  death  of  Adams,  which  occurred  on  the 
29th  of  March,  1829,  it  became  necessary  to  appoint 
a  magistrate  and  enact  laws.  An  election  was  held, 
the  women  voting  as  well  as  the  men,  and  a  son  of 
Quintal  was  elected  magistrate,  and  seven  other  men 
chosen  to  act  as  a  parliament.  A  code  of  laws  was  then 
carefully  written.  The  introduction  of  intoxicating 
liquors  was  forbidden,  except  for  medicinal  purposes. 
Women  were  forbid  to  go  on  board  of  ships,  except  by 
the  magistrates'  permission  and  in  company  with  four 
men  of  the  island.  It  was  forbidden  to  kill  cats,  unless 
they  were  positively  detected  in  killing  fowls.  Any 
one  violating  this  ordinance  was  required  to  destroy 
three  hundred  rats,  submitting  their  tails  for  inspec- 
tion to  the  magistrate.  The  reason  for  this  law  was 
the  great  number  of  rats,  which  did  much  damage  to  su- 
gar cane. 

At  length  it  became  a  serious  question  whether  the 
limited  resources  of  this  island  would  much  longer  sus- 
tain its  increasing  population.  The  British  government 
therefore  arranged  for  a  tract  of  land  in  Tahiti  to 
be  assigned  to  the  Pitcairners,  and  in  February,  1831, 
conveyed  them  all  thither.  But  soon  after  their  arrival 


PITCAIRN  AND  NORFOLK   ISLANDS.  457 

in  this  new  home  a  fever  broke  out  among  them  and 
caused  the  deaths  of  fourteen  ;  they  were  also  much 
distressed  at  the  immorality  of  the  Tahitians.  They 
therefore  all  returned  to  Pitcairn  five  months  after  their 
departure  from  that  island. 

Afterwards  the  British  government  again  became 
anxious  lest  the  Pitcairners  should  fail  to  gain  a  suffi- 
cient livelihood  from  their  little  island ;  for  occasionally 
drouths  diminished  their  crops  and  supply  of  water. 
They  therefore  granted  them  Norfolk  Island,  and  in 
April,  1856,  transported  them  all  thither. 

Norfolk  Island  is  situated  400  miles  northwest  of 
New  Zealand,  in  latitude  29°  10'  south  and  longitude 
1670  58'  east.  Near  it  are  Nepean  and  Philip  Islands 
and  some  rocks  called  Bird  Islands.  Norfolk  Island  is 
about  five  miles  long,  two  and  a  half  miles  broad,  has 
an  area  of  8,607  acres,  is  generally  about  400  feet 
high  above  the  sea,  and  rises  at  its  highest  point  to  an 
elevation  of  1,050  feet.  The  soil  consists  of  decom- 
posed basalt  and  is  very  fertile.  The  noble  Norfolk 
Pine  (Eutassa  excelsa)  abounds,  also  maples,  iron-wood, 
palms  and  gigantic  ferns.  Oranges,  lemons,  guavas, 
bananas,  peaches,  figs  and  pineapples  have  been  intro- 
duced, also  potatoes,  yams,  maize  and  various  cereals. 

Norfolk  Island  was  discovered  by  Capt.  Cook  in 
1774,  and  colonized  with  convicts  from  New  South 
Wales  in  1787.  At  one  time  the  number  of  these 
settlers  was  2,000;  but  before  1856  they  were  removed 
because  the  people  of  New  Zealand  objected  to  the  use 
of  this  island  as  a  penal  station. 


458  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

The  Pitcairners  arrived  at  this  island  on  the  8th  of 
June,  1856,  after  a  voyage  of  thirty-six  days.  They 
found  excellent  houses  of  stone  in  readiness  for  them, 
and  also  delightful  gardens,  and  an  abundance  of  cattle 
and  sheep.  They  were  able  to  procure  plentiful  supplies 
of  fish  from  the  surrounding  waters  and  rabbits  from  a 
neighboring  island.  They  were  visited  and  kindly  pro- 
vided with  flour  and  other  necessary  articles  by  Bishop 
Patteson,  who  afterwards  established  his  missionary 
school  for  the  natives  of  the  Loyalty  groups  on  the  op- 
posite side  of  this  island. 

The  change  from  Pitcairh  to  this  productive  island 
would  seem  to  have  been  most  delightful  ;  but  soon  two 
families  became  homesick  for  their  old  home — the  fam- 
ilies of  Moses  Young  and  Mayhew  Young,  sixteen  in 
number;  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1858  they 
returned  thither.  They  found  Pitcairn,  after  its  long 
abandonment,  overgrown  with  vegetation,  the  orange 
and  breadfruit  trees  loaded  with  fruit,  yams  and  potatoes 
abundant  in  the  fields,  and  chickens,  pigs  and  goats 
roaming  everywhere.  In  process  of  time  four  more  fam- 
ilies returned  to  Pitcairn,  although  Bishop  Patteson  en- 
treated them  to  remain  where  they  had  educational  and 
religious  privileges.  Two  young  men,  however,  of  these 
families,  Edwin  Nobbs  and  Fisher  Young,  remained 
with  Bishop  Patteson,  to  attend  his  school  and  prepare 
for  missionary  work.  These  young  men  went  on  a  mis- 
sionary voyage  with  Bishop  Patteson  and  were  attacked 
and  killed  by  the  natives  of  Santa  Cruz.  The  families 
that  returned  to  Pitcairn  have  ever  since  remained  in  that 


PITCAIRN   AND   NORFOLK   ISLANDS.          459 

lonely  island,  away  from  the  stirring  activities  of  the  civ- 
ilized world,  content  and  happy  in  the  unchanging  mo- 
notony of  life, 

"  Where  all  things  always  seem  the  same." 
The  number  of  people  now  on  the  island  is  one  hundred 
and  thirty. 

In  the  year  1886  Rev.  John  I.  Tay,  a  missionary  of 
the  Seventh-Day  Adventists  of  America,  visited  the  Pit- 
cairners  and  persuaded  them  to  adopt  Saturday  as  their 
Sabbath.  The  Christian  people  of  England  expressed 
much  regret  at  this  event.  It  might  be  said  that  the  fact 
that  those  who  go  from  England  to  this  island  by  the 
way  of  Cape  Horn  gain  a  day  in  reckoning  on  those  who 
go  thither  by  the  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope — the 
Sabbath  of  the  former  coming  on  Sunday  and  that  of  the 
latter  on  Saturday — indicates  that  neither  of  these  days 
should  be  very  strenuously  insisted  upon  as  the  only  one 
to  be  kept  sacred. 

In  their  lonely  retreat  the  Pitcairners  have  greatly 
enjoyed  the  visits  of  the  mission  brig  Pitcairn,  of  the 
Seventh-Day  Adventists,  whereby  they  have  been  kept  in 
touch  with  the  civilized  world.  They  will  doubtless  be 
led  to  embark  with  the  Adventists  in  mission  enterprises 
to  the  natives  of  New  Guinea  and  other  islands,  while 
the  Norfolk  Islanders  are  likewise  engaging  in  the  Me- 
lanesian  mission.  Thus  the  descendants  of  the  wild 
mutineers  of  the  ship  Bounty  have  become  a  new  force 
in  the  missionary  enterprises  of  the  Pacific. 

The  beautiful  development  that  has  been  on  this  isl- 
land,  from  its  former  pandemonium  into  its  present  Eden, 


460  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

is  one  of  the  marvels  of  our  times.  Plainly  it  is  to  be 
attributed  to  Christianity  ;  to  God's  blessing  on  the  truth 
of  the  Bible  and  on  education  of  children  in  that  truth. 
Through  this  divine  blessing  good  has  here  been  brought 
out  of  evil,  light  out  of  darkness,  virtue  out  of  vice ;  "in- 
stead of  the  thorn  has  come  up  the  fir  tree,  and  instead 
of  the  briar  the  myrtle  tree." 


THE   FUTURE   OF  THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN.      461 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE    FUTURE    OF   THE    PACIFIC    OCEAN. 

THERE  is  a  Japanese  proverb  that  "to  know  the 
future  we  must  learn  the  past. "  This  is  scientific ;  for 
all  science  is  built  on  inductions  from  the  known  to 
the  unknown. 

It  may  seem  vain  to  endeavor  to  cast  a  horoscope  of 
the  future  of  the  Pacific  ocean  ;  but  we  know  enough 
of  its  past,  and  see  sufficient  signs  in  its  present,  to  cor- 
rectly predict  its  future.  In  reviewing  its  past  history 
we  are  like  one  wandering  over  lava-flows,  and  observ- 
ing a  few  hardy  plants  that  have  gained  a  foothold  in 
their  rugged  surface,  and  that  presage  the  future  subju- 
gation of  the  rocky  desolation  by  the  vegetable  kingdom. 
We  have  noticed  in  the  islanders  of  the  Pacific  certain 
developments  of  good  that  promise  a  future  conquest 
of  their  barbarism  by  Christian  civilization. 

The  indications  of  this  future  conquest  are  to  be 
found  in  new  forces  that,  like  powers  of  life,  are  operat- 
ing among  these  islanders.  Our  most  important  inquir- 
ies therefore  are,  What  are  these  forces  ?  What  is  their 
power  to  overcome  paganism  and  to  rear  over  it  a  Chris- 
tian civilization  ?  And  how  can  these  forces  be  best  and 
most  rapidly  brought  into  operation  ? 

In  making  these  inquiries  we  cannot  make  much 
account  of  the  influences  of  mere  civilization  apart  from 


462  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

Christianity.  It  has  generally  been  supposed  that  the 
establishment  of  commerce,  the  introduction  of  the 
superior  implements  and  the  choicest  fabrics  of  enlight- 
ened countries,  instruction  in  mechanical  and  fine  arts, 
and  fellowship  with  people  from  civilized  nations,  would 
most  powerfully  awaken  and  elevate  barbarous  nations. 
A  popular  journalist,  who  happened  to  land  in  Hawaii  on 
Sunday  and  found  its  business  houses  closed  on  that  day, 
published  his  view  that  Honolulu  was  "a  piety-stricken 
city,"  and  that  the  missionaries  had  made  a  great  mis- 
take in  teaching  the  Hawaiians  the  stern  tenets  of  Puri- 
tanism instead  of  giving  them  instruction  more  in  con- 
formity with  the  beauty  of  their  scenery,  and  leading 
them  with  poetry  and  song  into  high  culture  and  refine- - 
ment.  But  the  influences  of  civilization  have  never  had 
power  to  cause  the  moral  renovation  that  is  essential  for 
the  beginning  of  true  civilization,  as  well  as  for  its 
continuance  and  development.  It  has  been  true  of  the 
people  of  the  Pacific,  as  of  all  heathen  races  elsewhere, 
that  they  have  needed  provision  for  their  spiritual  wants 
before  they  would  accept  civilization.  In  many  islands 
the  natives  have  refused  to  put  on  clothes,  and  have 
preferred  to  bask  in  the  sun,  feeding  on  the  spontaneous 
fruits  of  their  forests,  instead  of  laboring  in  the  enter- 
prises of  civilization,  and  have  only  at  last  accepted 
clothing  when  they  have  become  Christian.  A  few 
chiefs  from  different  groups  have  been  taken  to  Europe 
and  America,  clothed  in  the  best  style  of  civilized  people, 
shown  the  splendors  of  modern  arts,  and  lavishly  sup- 
plied with  the  means  of  living  in  enlightened  style,  and 


¥ 


THE   FUTURE   OF   THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN.      465 

have  returned  to  their  homes  to  be  only  more  evil  and 
barbarous  than  before.  King  Kalakaua,  of  Hawaii,  after 
his  journey  around  the  world,  after  he  had  been  honora- 
bly received  in  the  highest  courts  of  every  country  that 
he  visited,  endeavored  only  to  lead  his  people  back  into 
their  former  paganism,  and  was  a  more  besotted  and 
despotic  ruler  than  before. 

It  is  said  that  Bishop  Colenso  once  performed  an 
experiment  in  this  line.  "  Believing  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  civilize  men  before  it  would  be  possible  to  con- 
vert them,  he  gathered  a  dozen  boys  from  Zulu  families 
and  had  them  bound  to  him  for  a  number  of  years, 
pledging  himself  that  while  he  would  provide  for  and 
instruct  them  no  effort  should  be  made  to  bias  their 
minds  upon  religious  questions.  They  made  considera- 
ble progress,  and  on  the  last  day  before  the  expiration 
of  the  school  term  he  told  them  the  engagement  under 
which  they  had  come,  reminded  them  of  his  fidelity  to 
it,  and  appealed  to  their  sense  of  gratitude  that  they 
should  remain  with  him  and  receive  the  instruction 
which  he  considered  far  more  important  than  all  they 
had  received.  The  next  morning  every  man  was  gone ; 
and  the  only  gratitude  they  showed  was  to  leave  their 
European  clothes  with  which  he  had  furnished  them 
and  go  back  to  their  native  habits.  It  is  said  that  the 
next  day  he  walked  over  to  a  station  of  the  American 
Mission  and  laid  a  ^"50  note  on  their  bench,  and  said, 
"You  are  right,  and  I  was  wrong." 

A  philanthropist  once  took  a  plough  into  the  interior 
of  Africa  and  showed  the  natives  how  to  use  it.    As  they 


466  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

saw  it  turning  up  more  sod  in  an  hour  than  they  could 
dig  up  in  a  month  they  danced  and  turned  somersaults 
in  delight.  But  when,  a  few  days  afterwards,  he  returned 
to  see  how  they  had  succeeded  in  using  it,  he  found 
that  they  had  turned  it  upside  down,  covered  it  with 
flowers  and  were  worshipping  it.  They  had  deeper 
wants  than  to  be  provided  with  the  mere  implements  of 
civilization,  and  till  those  wants  were  supplied  it  was 
useless  to  endeavor  to  civilize  them.  We  might  as  well 
expect  that  the  winged  seeds  and  butterflies  that  some- 
times are  blown  into  the  volcanic  craters  of  Hawaii 
would  there  cause  a  kingdom  of  life,  as  to  suppose  that 
the  useful  and  ornamental  arts  of  civilization,  when  in- 
troduced into  a  pagan  country,  would  cause  a  pure  and 
noble  people. 

But  the  influences  of  civilization  have  been  not  only 
useless  but  also  actually  harmful,  when  not  accompanied 
by  Christianity.  They  have  only  awakened  cupidity,  in- 
stigated robberies,  murders  and  piracies,  and  have  been 
accompanied  by  an  immorality  that  has  been  more  de- 
grading and  deadly  than  heathenism  itself.  And  so  the 
worst  developments  of  the  islanders  have  been  where 
they  have  had  the  most  contact  with  civilized  races,  and 
the  best  where  they  have  been  most  secluded  from  such 
races. 

It  is  evident  that  the  only  cause  of  the  good  hereto- 
fore developed  in  the  Pacific  islands,  as  also  the  only 
hope  and  the  all-sufficient  hope  for  their  future,  is  in 
Christianity.  It  is  evident  also  that  the  power  of  Chris- 
tianity has  consisted  in  the  supernatural  influence  that 


THE   FUTURE   OF  THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN.    467 

has  accompanied  it.  The  islanders  have  been  like  peo- 
ple dwelling  in  the  wintry  night  of  the  Arctic  and  seeing 
the  first  gleams  of  the  returning  sun.  To  a  pious  mind 
the  most  important  fact  taught  by  the  history  of  the  Pa- 
cific is  that,  in  providences  and  quickening  influences, 
there  has  been  a  Divine  Presence  with  the  labors  of  the 
missionaries.  "The  people  who  sat  in  darkness  have 
seen  a  great  light,  and  to  them  who  sat  in  the  region  and 
shadow  of  death  light  is  sprung  up. " 

It  is  evident  also  that  the  influence  of  Christianity 
has  operated  only  where  human  agencies  have  introduced 
it.  The  method  of  the  divine  work  in  all  the  world  has 
been  to  operate  through  second  causes.  The  only  way, 
therefore,  to  evangelize  the  benighted  races  is  to  employ 
consecrated  men  and  women  to  bear  to  them  the  light 
and  blessings  of  the  gospel.  A  more  beautiful  work  can- 
not be  conceived.  It  is  as  though  men  were  employed 
to  bear  in  their  hands  the  sunlight  that  makes  the  day, 
-to  fling  it  into  the  shades  of  night,* gild  it  upon  the 
clouds,  and  spread  its  glory  over  all  the  sky  and  earth ; 
so  men  are  to  convey  the  higher  light  of  heaven  and 
spread  its  blessings  over  all  the  world. 

With  men,  therefore,  is  the  opportunity  as  well  as  the 
duty  of  promoting  the  new  era  of  Christian  civilization. 
Dr.  Josiah  Strong  has  well  remarked  that  "the  progress 
of  humanity  is  neither  fortuitous  nor  arbitrary ;  that  we 
may  promote  or  retard  it."  In  inquiring,  therefore, 
what  are  the  future  prospects  of  the  Pacific,  we  need  to 
first  consider  on  what  the  best  development  of  the  island- 
ers. Of  this  we  learn  from  past  history. 


468  THE  ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

And  first  we  learn  that  mission  enterprises,  when 
once  begun,  should  be  persistently  and  continuously 
pushed.  This  is  very  desirable  at  the  inception  of  a 
mission,  as  is  illustrated  by  the  history  of  the  Marquesas 
Islands,  where  through  forty  years  the  mission  work  was 
repeatedly  begun  and  abandoned,  and  the  natives  there- 
by made  indifferent,  and  actually  hostile,  to  Christianity. 
This  is  even  more  important  in  the  later  periods  of  mis- 
sions, after  idolatry  has  been  overthrown  and  while  the 
natives  are  learning  to  care  for  their  own  churches,  to  con- 
duct new  and  better  systems  of  civil  government,  and  to 
enter  into  the  industrial  enterprises  of  civilization.  Also, 
where  fields  are  occupied  wholly  by  native  laborers,  it  is 
necessary  for  foreign  missionaries  to  long  continue  to 
supervise  the  work  and  encourage  the  members  of  the 
churches  and  their  pastors  and  teachers.  The  work  of 
overcoming  paganism  is  hardly  more  difficult  than  the 
later  work  of  establishing  Christian  institutions.  When 
this  work  is  neglected,  and  the  reformed  pagans  back- 
slide, it  is  exceedingly  hard  to  recover  them.  Seven 
devils  then  enter,  and  the  last  state  is  worse  than  the 
first. 

We  also  learn  that  Christian  schools  should  be  most 
earnestly  promoted.  Without  them  evangelistic  work 
is  like  casting  seed  into  a  wild  jungle,  instead  of  into 
carefully  tilled  soil.  With  such  schools  at  the  beginning 
of  a  missionary  enterprise,  even  among  the  most  degraded 
people,  an  army  of  laborers  is  soon  raised  up  to  con- 
quer the  whole  people  for  Christ,  as  India  was  con- 
quered by  the  Sepoys  for  Great  Britain,  and  with  them, 


SCENE  ON  A  CORAL  ISLAND. 


FIRST  METHOD  OF  PREACHING  IN  HAWAII. 


THE   FUTURE   OF   THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN.     471 

in  the  later  periods  of  a  missionary  enterprise,  stability, 
permanence  and  splendid  development  are  given  to 
Christian  institutions.  As  the  influence  of  Robert  Col- 
lege caused  the  development  of  Bulgaria  into  an  inde- 
pendent nation,  under  constitutional  government,  so  the 
influence  of  similar  schools  in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific 
will  cause  the  development  of  enlightened  civil  govern- 
ments as  well  as  all  the  institutions  of  Christianity.  It  is 
a  matter  of  great  encouragement  that  in  Hawaii  much 
wealth  has  been  nobly  consecrated  to  founding  such 
schools.  But  far  greater  investments  are  needed  for 
this  object  in  all  the  groups  of  the  Pacific. 

We  also  learn  that  men  from  civilized  countries, 
as  well  as  the  heathen,  in  the  Pacific  should  be  more 
looked  after  in  the  future.  It  is  very  desirable  that  schools 
and  churches  should  be  organized  for  this,  the  most 
influential  class  in  the  Pacific  Islands  ;  also  that  interna- 
tional agreements  should  be  made  to  stop  the  trade  with 
the  natives  in  spirituous  liquors  and  fire-arms,  and  the 
' '  black-bird  traffic, "  or  slave  trade  ;  and  that  the  great 
nation  should  be  induced  to  pursue  a  more  just,  mag- 
nanimous and  generous  course  towards  those  little 
communities  that  are  just  rising  out  of  darkness  into 
the  light  of  Christianity. 

We  learn  also  that  it  is  very  desirable  that  the  relig- 
ious denominations  in  the  great  nations  should  be  per- 
suaded not  to  foist  their  sectarian  strife  upon  the  little 
churches  in  the  Pacific.  Very  beautifully  the  foreign 
mission  societies  both  in  England  and  America  began, 
with  a  delightful  fellowship  of  Christians  of  different 

22 


472  THE   ISLANDS    OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

names  and  sects;  and  beautifully  also  missionaries  of 
different  denominations  have  labored  harmoniously  to- 
gether in  the  Pacific,  ignoring  unimportant  differences 
of  creed,  ceremony,  and  polity.  These  societies  must 
return  to  this  spirit  of  union,  and  all  denominations, 
instead  of  competing  with  each  other  or  of  combining 
as  a  mere  federation  of  cliques,  unite  as  one  body  in 
Christ,  before  Christianity  will  truly  prosper  and  win 
its  final  victory  over  the  world. 

If,  now,  in  accordance  with  these  lessons  from  past 
history,  the  influence  of  Christianity  is  wisely,  faithfully 
and  earnestly  promoted  in  the  Pacific  Islands,  we  may 
hope  for  a  sublime  future  era  for  this  part  of  the  world. 
It  is  well  to  view  this  prospect  as  an  ideal  at  least  of 
what  should  be  striven  for.  We  distinctly  learn  from 
past  history  that  we  may  promote  Christianity,  and  that 
it  is  operating  to  cause  vast  future  changes  for  the  better. 
As  at  the  rising  of  the  sun  the  mists  and  shades  of  night 
flee  away,  so  the  various  evils  of  the  primitive  heathen- 
ism, and  those  also  of  barbarous  civilization,  must 
in  process  of  time  disappear  under  this  influence. 

This  idolatry  will  for  ever  cease,  and  with  it  the 
deep-seated  superstitions  that  have  originated  it.  The 
latter  will  doubtless  continue  long,  and  be  abolished 
only  with  difficulty.  It  has  been  found  that  after  idols 
have  been  destroyed  the  islanders  have  long  retained 
a  secret  dread  of  demoniacal  powers  that  have  been 
supposed  to  reside  in  nature.  This  superstition  has 
come  to  view  when  religion  has  declined  and  society 
has  been  demoralized,  and  in  Hawaii  has  renewed  the 


THE   FUTURE   OF   THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN.      473 

worship  of  idols  seventy  years  after  it  had  been  re- 
nounced. Even  Anglo-Saxon  nations,  after  a  thousand 
years  of  Christian  culture,  retain  superstitious  beliefs 
in  occult  powers  in  nature,  and  practice  divination, 
necromancy,  and  sorcery,  which  are  essential  heathenism. 
The  influence  of  Christianity  will  be  to  abolish  these 
and  all  other  such  superstitions.  The  signs  of  the  times 
indicate  with  scientific  certainty  that  they  will  utterly 
and  forever  cease  in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific.  Already 
in  most  of  these  islands  idols  are  becoming  rare  curiosi- 
ties, to  be  obtained  only  at  great  prices.  The  restric- 
tions of  the  tabu  are  nearly  everywhere  broken  ;  the 
horrors  of  human  sacrifices  have  ceased  ;  the  occupa- 
tion of  the  sorcerer  is  gone;  the  skies  are  clearing  of 
the  demon  tribe  that  were  supposed  to  infest  them, 
and  the  clear  light  is  shining. 

Christianity  will  also  put  an  end  to  the  horrid  im- 
morality and  cruelty  that  have  grown  out  of  paganism. 
War,  infanticide,  patricide,  the  murder  of  widows,  of  the 
sick,  and  of  the  aged,  and  cannibalism,  must  cease  in  all 
the  Pacific.  Already  in  many  islands  they  have  been  dis- 
continued ;  the  turmoil,  the  fear  and  the  agony  they 
caused  are  ended  ;  and  the  natives  are  beginning  to  lead 
lives  of  peace,  honesty,  sobriety,  and  benevolence. 

Christianity  will  also  repress  and  finally  overcome  the 
evils  of  unchristian  civilization.  The  struggle  with  these 
will  be  even  longer  and  more  difficult  than  with  pagan- 
ism. The  influence  of  evil  men  from  civilized  nations 
and  the  felonies  of  those  nations  will  be  in  the  future,  as 
in  the  past,  the  chief  obstacle  to  the  Christian  develop- 


474  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 

ment  of  the  Islanders  ;  for  emigrants  from  those  nations 
will  constitute  the  largest  and  most  important  portion  of 
the  population  of  the  islands.  While  the  aborigines  will 
diminish  foreign  races  will  increase  in  number,  lured  to 
the  Pacific  by  the  safety,  delight  and  profit  of  living 
where  missionaries  have  done  their  good  work.  These 
foreigners  will  chiefly  own  the  wealth,  conduct  the  in- 
dustries and  administer  the  governments  of  the  islands. 
So  that  the  question  in  regard  to  the  future  condition  of 
the  people  of  the  Pacific  is  chiefly  a  question  in  regard 
to  the  character  of  these  immigrants.  With  them  will  be 
conveyed  the  evil  as  well  as  the  good  prevailing  in  the 
countries  from  which  they  come ;  all  the  vices,  all  the 
struggles  of  races,  sects,  creeds,  and  isms  of  every  kind 
that  exist  in  those  countries,  will  be  introduced  by  them. 
As  also  the  world  is  becoming  more  closely  united  to- 
gether by  increasing  means  of  intercommunication  and 
by  a  growing  spirit  of  fraternity,  the  question  in  regard 
to  the  future  condition  of  the  little  islands  of  the  Pacific 
broadens  into  a  question  in  regard  to  the  future  condi- 
tion of  the  whole  world. 

But  there  is  a  power  in  Christianity  to  overcome  all 
the  evils  in  the  world.  Greater  is  He  that  is  in  Christian- 
ity than  he  that  is  in  the  world.  All  power  in  heaven 
and  earth  is  with  the  great  Author  of  Christianity,  who  ;s 
with  his  people  always,  to  the  end  of  the  world. 

Already  both  in  the  Pacific  and  in  all  the  world  the 
signs  of  the  times  betoken  the  future  victory  of  Christian- 
ity over  all  evil.  The  civilizations  that  have  been  fos- 
tered by  missionaries  among  the  aborigines  of  the  islands 


THE   FUTURE   OF  THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN.      475 

are  proving  to  be  nuclei  for  attracting  the  better  classes 
of  people  from  foreign  countries ;  and  the  communities 
thus  formed  of  both  natives  and  foreigners  are  doing 
much  for  the  evangelization  of  all  the  races  coming  into 
their  midst.  Thus  in  Hawaii  successful  Home  Mission 
enterprises  are  conducted  for  the  resident  Chinese,  Jap- 
anese, Portuguese,  and  South-Sea  Islanders.  The  in- 
creasing prevalence  of  Christianity  in  the  great  nations 
also  is  having  an  influence  in  these  islands.  Thus,  in 
consequence  of  the  development  of  evangelical  churches 
in  France,  Protestant  missions  are  conducted  by  that 
country  in  the  islands  under  its  usurpation.  And  thus 
also  whatever  is  accomplished  in  any  countries,  in  re- 
pressing war,  slavery,  intemperance,  and  vice,  and  in 
developing  sublime  enterprises  of  philanthropy,  aids  in 
overcoming  the  evil  in  these  little  islands  of  the  sea. 

As  the  sun  not  only  dispels  darkness,  but  also  causes 
light  and  warmth  and  beauty,  and  sets  in  motion  all  the 
activities  of  nature,  Christianity  will  also  cause  positive 
good  in  the  Pacific.  And  first  it  will  cause  the  physical 
salvation  of  the  aborigines  from  extinction,  and  their 
development  into  a  noble  people.  Heretofore  where 
civilized  races  have  come  into  contact  with  wild  tribes 
the  latter  have  utterly  disappeared.  Thus  the  primitive 
inhabitants  of  the  Azores  and  West  Indies  and  most  of 
the  Indians  of  the  eastern  United  States  have  passed 
away.  Thus  also  in  the  far  Western  Pacific,  in  the  Lad- 
rone  Islands,  where  only  the  Roman-catholic  religion 
was  introduced,  the  natives  have  entirely  disappeared, 
and  only  Spaniards  are  to  be  found.  Thus  too  in  all 


476  THE  ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

the  islands  of  the  Pacific  there  has  been  a  wonderful 
decadence  of  population.  But  since  Christianity  has 
come  with  saving  power  it  has  retarded  this  extinction. 
If  it  had  not  come  the  natives  of  many  groups  would 
now  be  as  scarce  as  Indians.  Now,  in  consequence  of 
the  conformity  of  the  natives  to  the  laws  of  health  and 
morality,  and  of  wise  medical  care  provided  for  them  by 
mission  agencies  and  by  new  and  intelligent  governments, 
their  bodily  health  is  promoted  while  their  spiritual  na- 
tures are  improved.  As  the  missionaries  have  sometimes 
rescued  native  infants  from  being  buried  alive  by  their 
savage  parents  so  they  are  rescuing  the  native  race  from 
extinction  ;  and  though  greatly  diminished  in  numbers 
that  race  will  continue  as  a  monument  of  the  power  for 
good  of  the  Foreign  Mission  enterprise. 

The  surviving  natives,  however,  will  be  a  mixed  race. 
Already  there  are  more  than  6,000  half-caste  children,  in 
Hawaii,  to  only  32,000  natives.  The  future  population 
will  not  for  many  years,  if  ever,  be  entirely  homogene- 
ous. It  will  comprise  pure  foreigners  of  many  different 
nationalities,  and  half-castes  as  various  in  form  and 
complexion  as  the  many  tinted  foliage  of  their  islands. 

The  half-caste  race  thus  formed  will  be  an  improve- 
ment on  the  former  native  race,  if  not  on  the  foreign 
races.  The  composite  races  of  the  world  have  been  the 
best.  In  Hawaii  the  half-castes  are  an  improvement  on 
the  native  Hawaiians,  handsomer,  more  healthy,  and 
more  intelligent.  It  will  not  be  a  matter  for  regret  that 
the  future  Pacific  Islander  will  be  a  composite  man, 
having  an  infusion  of  the  best  blood  of  the  human  race, 


THE   FUTURE   OF  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN.      479 

having  a  lighter  complexion  than  the  people  who  for 
countless  ages  ran  naked  under  a  tropical  sun,  having 
also  a  brighter  intellect  and  greater  energies  than  his 
forefathers,  who  slept  away  an  aimless  existence  in  isola- 
tion from  the  stirring  activities  of  civilized  nations  and 
in  the  dark  idiocy  of  pagan  superstitions.  That  this 
future  islander  will  be  a  man  of  noble  physical  propor- 
tions many  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  in  the  Tonga  and 
Samoa  Islands  the  primitive  inhabitants  have  been  on  an 
average  the  tallest  people  in  the  world,  and  as  much 
distinguished  for  symmetry  of  form  as  for  height.  When 
now  in  the  Pacific  Islands  the  people  better  obey  the 
laws  of  health  and  morality  than  the  ancient  Tongans 
and  Samoans  they  must  become  a  superior  race.  That 
they  will  be  a  more  intelligent  and  energetic  race  may 
be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  they  will  be  combined 
with  the  most  intelligent  races  of  the  world ;  that  they 
will  receive  the  most  stimulating  influences  from  those 
nations,  all  the  treasures  of  knowledge,  all  the  advan- 
tages gained  by  science  and  invention  in  all  human 
history,  and  that  they  will  be  quickened  more  and  more 
by  the  new  life  of  Christianity. 

Christianity  will  also  here,  as  elsewhere,  develop  the 
activities  of  civilization.  The  islanders  will  be  moved 
to  develop  all  the  resources  of  their  countries.  With 
the  aid  of  future  better  means  of  trans-oceanic  convey- 
ance, much  that  they  can  produce  of  sugar,  rice,  cotton, 
coffee,  textile  fabrics,  tropical  fruits,  and  marine  treas- 
ures will  be  carried  to  foreign  nations,  and  in  return 
much  that  foreign  nations  can  produce  will  be  brought 


480  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

to  them  and  much  that  the  most  skilled  artisans  of 
foreign  nations  can  do  will  be  done  in  their  islands. 
The  forces  of  electricity,  magnetism  and  light  will  be 
caught,  with  the  aid  of  the  winds,  the  waves,  the  water-- 
falls and  the  sunshine,  and  applied  in  countless  and 
ceaseless  industries,  in  the  illumination  and  glorification 
of  the  islands  and  in  linking  them  by  submarine  lines 
of  communication  with  each  other  and  the  continents. 

Better  than  all  this,  the  new  race  will  be  Christian. 
This  may  be  inferred  from  the  nature  of  Christianity, 
its  adaptability  to  man,  and  the  history  of  missions  in 
the  Pacific.  As  the  sun  shines  as  brightly  in  these  far- 
away islands,  the  forms  of  vegetation  are  as  luxuriant, 
beautiful  and  fruitful,  and  the  tribes  of  animal  life  as 
numerous,  varied  and  perfect  as  in  the  old  regions  of  the 
continents,  so  Christianity  here  has  the  same  power  and 
causes  the  same  results  as  in  the  Old  World.  The  island- 
ers have  been  as  susceptible  to  its  truths,  have  as  truly 
bowed  in  repentance  before  its  holy  revelations,  have  as 
confidently  accepted  its  salvation,  and  have  as  joyfully 
consecrated  themselves  to  the  performance  of  its  require- 
ments as  the  more  favored  people  of  enlightened  coun- 
tries. The  genuineness  of  their  Christianity  may  be  in- 
ferred from  their  conduct.  "By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them. "  They  have  ceased  from  idolatry  and  in- 
human practices,  have  become  honest,  peaceful,  law- 
abiding  and  philanthropic,  and  many  of  them  have 
testified  the  genuineness  of  their  piety  by  enduring  mar- 
tyrdoms. If  these  facts  do  not  prove  them  to  have  been 
genuine  Christians  there  is  no  proof  that  there  are  any 


THE  FUTURE   OF  THE   PACIFIC   OCEAN.      483 

Christians  in  civilized  countries,  for  Christians  cannot  be 
proved  to  exist  by  any  other  kind  of  evidence.  Judging 
now  from  the  achievements  of  missions  in  the  Pacific 
we  may  infer  that  the  populations  of  all  the  islands  of 
that  ocean  will  yet  become  as  truly  Christian  as  those  of 
the  continents. 

And  they  will  display  their  Christianity  in  their  con- 
duct. Their  very  demeanor,  their  attire,  and  their  words, 
their  deeds  and  occupations  will  exhibit  Christian  char- 
acter. In  former  times  to  go  from  enlightened  lands  to 
these  islands  was  like  going  from  the  upper  world  into 
the  realm  of  the  monsters  of  the  deep,  so  inhuman  in 
appearance,  condition  and  conduct  were  the  natives. 
But  under  the  humanizing  influence  of  missions  their 
outward  mien  and  behavior,  as  well  as  their  character, 
are  changing.  It  has  become  proverbial  that  as  soon  as 
they  become  Christian  they  put  on  the  dress  of  civilized 
people,  often  indeed  beginning  in  grotesque  imitations 
of  foreign  fashions,  but  in  process  of  time  conforming  to 
the  best  taste  and  style  of  refined  communities.  And 
with  change  of  dress  they  have  adopted  the  manners  and 
sought  after  the  arts  and  inventions,  the  treasures  and 
luxuries,  of  enlightened  nations.  The  future  man  of  the 
Pacific  will  not  be  an  unclothed  savage,  tattooed,  and 
smeared  with  turmeric  and  ochreous  earth,  delighting  in 
a  helmet  of  bird  feathers,  wielding  a  war-club  or  shark- 
teeth  sword,  and  uttering  unearthly  yells  and  war- 
whoops,  but  well  clothed,  cultured  and  refined,  engaged 
in  the  foremost  arts,  and  conversing  intelligently  on  the 
best  enterprises  of  the  world. 


484  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

Doubtless  there  will  be  distinctive  peculiarities  in  his 
style  and  conduct,  just  as  his  palm-fringed  shores  and 
festooned  forests  differ  from  the  prairies  and  open  woods 
of  the  continents.  But  there  will  be  a  charm  in  his  sin- 
gular phase  of  life ;  and  tourists,  who  find  in  place  of 
the  former  barbaric  anarchy  homes  that  reflect  the  sin- 
gular beauty  of  the  island  scenery  and  afford  suggestions 
of  the  primitive  Eden,  will  be  drawn  to  go  thither  again, 
as  the  plovers  fly  to  and  fro  between  the  coasts  of  Amer- 
ica and  Hawaii  ;  for  Christianity  will  here  do  its  work, 
as  elsewhere,  of  enlightening  and  sweetening  life.  As 
from  the  shining  of  the  sun  the  living  forms  even  in  the 
depths  of  the  ocean,  the  fishes,  shells,  corals  and  algae, 
catch  the  colors  of  the  light,  so  in  this  people  will  be 
kindled  the  varied  beauty  and  glory  of  that  higher  light 
that  shines  into  the  world  from  the  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness. 

And,  best  of  all,  the  people  will  manifest  their  Chris- 
tian character  in  high  activities  of  philanthropy.  As 
here  Christianity  was  missionary  in  its  origin  it  will  be 
missionary  in  its  results.  Light  will  be  borne  from  isl- 
and to  island  and  to  the  continents.  Like  the  tidal 
waves  that  roll  over  the  whole  expanse  of  the  ocean,  be- 
nevolent enterprises  will  extend  to  the  most  distant 
lands.  The  future  pacific  age  in  this  ocean  will  be  pe- 
culiarly a  philanthropic  age. 


APPENDIX   A.  485 


APPENDIX  A. 


BRIEF  ACCOUNT  OF  RESEARCHES  RESPECT- 
ING THE  ANCIENT  POLYNESIANS. 

Like  the  fossils,  that  tell  of  ancient  geological  ages, 
the  legends,  customs  and  languages  of  the  people  of  the 
Pacific  Islands  afford  considerable  information  respect- 
ing their  history  in  the  ancient  ages  before  they  knew 
the  art  of  writing.  In  some  of  these  islands  the  inhabi- 
tants have  claimed  to  be  autocthons ;  but  their  very 
appearance  and  words  belie  this  claim. 

It  has  been  well  said  that  "language  is  an  amber  in 
which  a  thousand  precious  thoughts  have  been  preserved. " 
In  the  languages  of  these  races  not  only  many  of  their 
ideas  but  also  many  facts  of  their  history  have  been  pre- 
served. We  thereby  can  trace  their  origin  from  group  to 
group,  even  to  the  continent  of  Asia,  and  also  determine 
something  of  the  times  and  routes  of  the  migrations. 
There  is  here  a  rich  field  for  archaeological  research 
which  has  hardly  yet  been  fairly  entered.  An  interesting 
account  of  investigations  in  this  field  has  been  published 
by  the  late  Abraham  Fornander,  of  Hawaii ;  from  whose 
books  on  ' '  The  Polynesian  Race  "  some  of  the  follow- 
ing statements  are  quoted. 


486  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC. 

NAMES    OF    ISLANDS. 

The  ancient  islanders  seem  to  have  carried  along 
with  them  the  names  of  their  former  places  of  residence  ; 
just  as  emigrants  from  Great  Britain  brought  to  America 
many  names  of  the  cities  from  which  they  came.  The 
following  names  of  Hawaiian  Islands  seem  to  have  been 
brought  from  islands  and  districts  in  other  groups. 

The  name  Hawaii,  which  is  composed  of  two  words, 
Hawa  and  t't,  or  iki,  meaning  Little  Hawa,  is  found  in 
Raiatea,  of  the  Society  group,  as  the  name  of  a  sacred 
place,  in  the  Marquesas  Islands  and  in  New  Zealand  it 
occurs  in  legends  as  Hawa-iki,  and  in  Samoa  as  the  name 
of  their  principal  island,  Savaii.  It  evidently  points 
back  to  a  great  Hawa,  from  which  the  islanders  came. 
We  find  the  name,  Hawa,  or  Java,  in  the  Sunda  Islands, 
Djava,  of  a  river  in  Borneo,  Sawa-it  a  place  in  Borneo, 
Sawa-i  a  place  in  Seram.  In  this  connection  Judge 
Fornander  mentions  the  name  Saba,  or  Zaba,  of  a  place 
of  ancient  importance  in  Arabia. 

The  name  Oahu  is  similar  to  Ouahou,  of  a  district  in 
Borneo,  and  Ouadju,  of  a  territory  in  Celebes. 

The  name  Molokai  corresponds  to  Morotay  in  the 
Moluccas  and  Borotai  in  Borneo. 

The  name  Kauai  resembles  Tawai  of  the  Batchian 
Islands,  and  Kawai  of  Sumatra. 

The  name  Maui  is  found  in  New  Zealand  as  part  of 
the  name  of  an   island,  and  there   and  in  many  other 
groups  as  the  name  of  a  god. 


OF  THB 

UNIVERSITY 


APPENDIX   A.  489 

NAMES    OF    GODS. 

As  has  been  mentioned  in  the  foregoing  chapters, 
similar  names  of  supreme  gods  obtained  in  many  of  the 
Pacific  groups  of  islands.  Thus  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
the  chief  gods  were  Kane,  the  creator  of  the  world  and 
man,  Kanaka,  the  creator  of  water  and  useful  plants, 
Ku,  a  malevolent  being  who  delighted  in  human  sacri- 
fices, and  Lono,  who  was  invoked  for  rain.  The  natives 
of  the  Society  Islands  worshipped  Tane,  Taaroa,  and 
Oro  ;  the  New  Zealanders  Tane,  Ra,  and  Tangaloa ;  the 
Austral  Islanders  Taaroa ;  the  Tonguise  Tangaloa,  Hea- 
Moana-Uliuli,  and  Hikulao.  In  the  Hawaiian,  Society, 
Tongan  and  New  Zealand  Islands  a  god  by  the  name 
of  Maui  was  worshipped,  who  was  said  to  have  fished  up 
the  islands  with  a  hook  and  line  from  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean,  arrested  the  sun  in  its  course,  when  it  was  going 
too  rapidly,  and  made  it  go  more  slowly,  and  introduced 
fire  among  mankind.  The  name  Pele,  of  the  Hawaiian 
goddess  of  the  volcano,  is  similar  to  the  Tahitian  word 
pere,  for  a  volcano,  the  name  Fe-e,  of  a  Samoan  volcano- 
god,  and  the  common  Polynesian  word  we/a,  or  wera, 
for  heat  or  fire.  Judge  Fornander  mentions  that  the 
word  for  hot  in  Mysol  is  pelah,  in  the  Sunda  Islands 
belem,  and  that  the  name  of  the  sun-god,  or  Jupiter-god, 
in  Babylon  and  Phoenicia  was  Bel. 

GENEALOGIES. 

A  very  interesting  comparison  has  been  made  of  the 
genealogies   of  Hawaii  and  New   Zealand,  in   each   of 


4QO  THE    ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

which  groups  the  natives  took  great  pains  to  preserve 
the  names  of  their  ancient  kings.  In  these  groups, 
situated  at  the  opposite  extremities  of  the  Pacific,  the 
genealogies  coincide  in  the  names  of  four  kings  and  their 
wives  of  very  ancient  dates.  The  names  are  as  follows  : 

NEW  ZEALAND.  HAWAIIAN. 

Hema  and  Urutonga  his  wife  Hema  and  Ulu-mahehoahis  wife 

Tawhaki  and  Hine-piri-piri  Kahai  and  Hina-uluohia 

Wahieroa  and  Kuru  Wahieloa  and  Koolaukahili 

Raka  and  Tongarautawhiri  Laka  and  Hikawaelena 

From  these  genealogies,  as  well  as  from  other  data, 
we  infer  that  about  seven  hundred  years  ago  the  ancestors 
of  the  natives  of  these  groups  were  one  people,  dwelling 
in  the  Samoa  Islands,  and  that  they  then  went  forth  on 
their  migrations  to  the  east,  north,  and  south. 

CUSTOMS. 

A  comparison  of  the  peculiar  customs  of  the  natives 
of  the  different  Pacific  Islands  is  very  interesting.  In 
almost  all  these  islands  the  custom  of  tattooing  has 
prevailed  ;  also  similar  funeral  rites  over  the  bodies  of 
the  dead,  also  similar  arts  of  sorcery  for  destroying  one's 
enemies  ;  and  similar  restrictions,  called  tabu,  or  tapu. 
In  nearly  all  these  islands  women  have  been  prohibited, 
on  pain  of  death,  from  eating  with  men,  and  from  eating 
pork,  many  kinds  of  fish  and  of  fruit.  In  the  Marquesas 
Islands  they  were  tabued  from  entering  canoes ;  in  the 
Tonga  Islands  they  were  tabued  from  entering  tem- 
ples. The  rite  of  circumcision  was  practised  in  Hawaii 
and  several  other  groups  of  islands.  In  Hawaii  there 


APPENDIX   A.  491 

were  cities  of  refuge,  called  puuhonua ;  in  other  groups 
there  were  provisions  for  refuge  on  certain  conditions  at 
the  homes  of  certain  chiefs.  On  the  Hawaiian  Island 
Kauai  there  were  two  tfunhonuas,  on  Oahu  two,  on 
Lanai  one,  and  on  Hawaii  three.  "The  most  celebrated 
puuhonua  was  at  Honaunau,  on  Hawaii.  It  measured 
715  feet  by  404  feet,  contained  seven  acres,  and  was 
surrounded  by  a  stone  wall  twelve  feet  high  and  fifteen 
feet  thick.  Large  wooden  images  stood  on  the  walls 
four  feet  apart.  Within  the  inclosure  there  were  three 
heiaus,  or  sacred  platforms.  '  Hither, '  says  Ellis,  '  the 
man-slayer,  the  man  who  had  broken  a  tabu,  the  thief, 
and  even  the  murderer,  fled  from  his  pursuers  and  was 
safe.  The  gates  were  always  open.  As  soon  as  a  fugitive 
had  entered  he  repaired  to  the  presence  of  the  idol  and 
made  a  short  address  of  thanksgiving.  The  priests  and 
their  attendants  would  immediately  put  to  death  any 
one  who  would  follow  or  molest  those  who  were  within 
the  pale  of  this  inclosure.'''  (W.  D.  Alexander's  "His- 
tory of  the  Hawaiian  People. ") 

LEGENDS. 

The  Polynesians  required  their  priests  to  very  care- 
fully memorize  the  legends  of  their  gods  and  heroic 
men.  A  Hawaiian  priest  would  often  spend  an  entire 
night  in  reciting  these  legends,  to  the  delight  of  his 
companions ;  and  in  voyaging  around  an  island  he 
would  sometimes  chant  them  as  connected  with  every 
high  promontory  or  deep  gorge  that  he  passed.  At  first 
view  these  legends  seem  pleasing  and  poetical,  but  as 


492  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

we  dip  deeply  into  them  we  stir  up  much  that  is  too 
foul  to  be  repeated.  They  are  valuable  for  the  informa- 
tion they  give  about  the  ancient  style  of  thought  of  the 
Polynesians,  their  power  of  imagination,  their  ideas 
of  justice,  humanity,  and  benevolence,  their  concep- 
tions about  God  and  other  supernatural  beings,  his- 
tories of  their  ancient  voyages  from  group  to  group  in 
the  Pacific,  and  narratives  that  are  similar  to  the  ancient 
Biblical  history.  An  expurgated  translation  of  this 
folklore  of  Hawaii,  when  it  is  published,  will  be  of  great 
interest  to  all  lovers  of  imaginative  literature.  This 
folklore  indicates  that  the  ancient  Hawaiians  were  bold 
and  enterprising  navigators,  going  in  their  dug-out 
canoes,  by  the  guidance  of  the  stars,  voyages  of  3,000  or 
4,000  miles  to  other  groups;  for  the  names  of  the  So- 
ciety, Marquesas,  and  Samoa  Islands  often  occur  in  their 
legends,  and  they  have  many  accounts  of  their  voyages  to 
and  from  these  islands.  In  like  manner  the  New  Zeal- 
anders  tell,  in  their  legends,  of  the  Hervey  and  Samoa 
Islands,  and  of  their  first  emigration  from  those  islands. 
-The  Rarotongans  also  tell  of  the  ancient  flight  of  their 
ancestors  from  Tahiti  on  account  of  war. 

It  is  a  matter  of  great  interest  to  explain  the  resem- 
blance of  their  stories  of  the  creation  and  of  the  first  his- 
tory of  mankind  to  the  accounts  in  the  book  of  Genesis. 
This  resemblance  is  especially  noticeable  in  the  legends  of 
Hawaii.  The  original  state  of  chaos  and  darkness,  and 
the  separation  of  the  firmament  above  from  the  earth  be- 
neath, is  narrated  by  the  Hawaiians  and  to  some  extent 
by  natives  of  the  South  Pacific  Islands.  The  Hawaiians 


APPENDIX   A.  493 

have  related  that  their  gods  existed  from  eternity — "mat 
ka  Po  mat,"  from  the  time  of  Night ;  and  that,  by  a  great 
exertion,  they  dissipated  the  Po,  the  Night,  and  caused 
light  to  enter.  The  Marquesans  have  a  legend,  called 
' '  Te  vanana  na  Tanaoa, "  the  prophecy  of  Tanaoa,  which 
relates  that  in  the  beginning  a  boundless  Po,  Night,  en- 
veloped everything,  over  which  Tanaoa,  which  means 
darkness,  and  Mutu-hei,  which  means  silence,  reigned 
supreme.  In  the  course  of  time  the  god  Atea,  which 
means  light,  drew  away  from  Tanaoa,  and  made  war  on 
him,  and  confined  him  in  limits,  and  produced  the  gods 
Atanua,  dawn  (Hawaiian,  Ahanui),  and  Ono,  sound, 
which  broke  up  Mutuhei,  the  silence.  The  New  Zeal- 
and legends  relate  that  in  the  beginning  the  gods  Rangi, 
heaven  (Hawaiian,  Lani),  and  Papa,  earth,  were  packed 
close  together,  till  their  six  children  rent  them  asunder, 
pushing  the  former  up  into  space,  and  let  in  light  to  the 
earth.  The  Samoans  relate  that  of  old  the  heavens  fell 
down,  and  people  had  to  crawl  about  till  a  god  named 
Tiitii  pushed  the  heavens  up.  The  Dyaks  of  Borneo 
relate  that  the  sky  was  originally  so  close  to  the  earth 
that  one  could  touch  it  with  his  hand,  till  the  daughter 
of  Tana-compta  raised  it  to  its  present  height ;  and  then 
the  succession  of  day  and  night  began. 

In  several  of  these  groups  of  islands  there  were  le- 
gends of  the  lifting  of  the  land  out  of  the  ocean,  such  as 
those  already  mentioned  of  the  exploits  of  the  god  Mam, 
and  others  of  the  god  Tangaroa. 

In  Hawaii  there  was  a  legerd  that  man  was  made  of 
earth  and  the  spittle  of  the  gods,  and  his  head  of  white 
23 


494  THE   ISLANDS    OF   THE   PACIFIC. 

clay,  palolo,  which  was  brought  by  Lono  from  the  four 
ends  of  the  earth  ;  and  that  woman  was  made  of  one  of 
his  lower  ribs,  lalo-puhaka,  and  therefore  called  run,  bone. 
The  New  Zealanders  related  that  man  was  made  by  three 
gods  out  of  one  of  man's  ribs. 

In  all  the  Pacific  Islands  there  are  legends  of  an  an- 
cient deluge,  which,  according  to  some  accounts,  was 
partial,  according  to  others  universal.  The  Fijis,  Mar- 
quesans  and  Hawaiians  related  that  during  the  preva- 
lence of  this  deluge  mankind  found  refuge  in  canoes. 
The  Hawaiians  stated  that  they  at  last  landed  on  the 
summit  of  their  Mauna  Kea. 

The  Hawaiians  have  a  tradition  of  a  man  who  insti- 
tuted the  rite  of  circumcision  and  afterwards  went  to  a 
far  distant  island.  They  have  also  legends  that  are  quite 
similar  to  the  story  of  Joseph  and  his  brethren. 

The  correspondence  of  these  legends  to  the  Biblical 
narratives  is  too  great  to  be  ascribed  to  the .  accidental 
development  of  the  same  trains  of  ideas  in  the  minds  of 
people  so  widely  separated  as  were  the  Hawaiians  and 
Israelites.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  Spaniards 
who  were  shipwrecked  on  some  of  the  Pacific  islands 
soon  after  the  discovery  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  gave  the 
islanders  the  Biblical  narratives,  and  thus  started  these 
legends.  It  has  taken  very  little  time  to  start  legends, 
or  incorrect  stories,  among  any  people.  Thus  in  Ha- 
waii the  volcanic  eruption  of  Hualalai,  that  occurred  as 
recently  as  the  year  1801,  is  explained  by  a  legend  re- 
specting the  goddess  Pele.  In  Mexico  several  legends, 
similar  to  the  Biblical  narratives,  were  started  among 


KAIULANI. 


APPENDIX   A.  497 

the  Indians  by  the  religious  instruction  given  by  the 
Roman-catholic  priests.  It  has  been  shown,  as  men- 
tioned in  Dubois'  "Religions  of  China,"  that  the  portion 
of  the  biography  of  Gautama  which  resembles  that  of 
Christ,  and  which  Arnold  has  celebrated  in  his  "Light 
of  Asia,"  was  derived  from  the  preaching  of  Nestorian 
missionaries  and  interpolated  into  the  Buddhist  books. 

But  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  in  the  Hawaiian 
legends  there  are  no  allusions  to  the  leading  events  of 
the  Old  Testament  history:  to  the  Egyptian  bondage  and 
the  exodus  from  Egypt  to  the  land  of  Sinai,  and  to  Solo- 
mon's temple ;  and  especially  that  these  legends  are 
totally  silent  upon  the  cruciolatry  and  Mariolatry  that 
the  Spaniards  practiced. 

Even  if  we  attribute  a  large  part  of  these  legends  to 
the  teachings  of  the  Spaniards  we  may  find  in  them 
some  vestiges  of  the  most  ancient  records  from  which  the 
earliest  narratives  of  the  Bible  were  derived.  Judge  For- 
nander  argues  that  they  prove  that  the  ancestors  of  the 
Pacific  Islanders  emigrated  from  Asia  at  a  time  before 
the  exodus  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt. 

LANGUAGES. 

The  Polynesian  languages  resemble  each  other  in 
grammatical  structure  and  in  words.  They  have  almost 
no  inflections  of  nouns  or  verbs ;  but  use  small  particles 
to  express  differences  of  cases  in  nouns,  and  of  tenses, 
number,  and  person  in  verbs.  The  passive  voice  is  deno- 
ted by  a  suffix.  Number  is  expressed  by  a  change  of  the 
article  ;  ka  being  used  in  Hawaiian  for  the  in  the  singu- 


498  THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE  PACIFIC, 

lar,  and  na  for  the  in  the  plural.  The  nominative  follows 
the  verb  ;  the  adjective  follows  the  substantive  ;  the  pos- 
sessive pronoun  precedes  its  noun.  The  plural  and  dual 
of  the  pronoun  of  the  first  person  have  two  peculiar  forms  ; 
as,  in  Hawaii,  kokou,  us,  including  the  person  addressed, 
and  makou,  us,  excluding  the  person  addressed  ;  kaua,  we 
two,  including  the  person  addressed,  and  maua,  we  two,  ex- 
cluding the  person  addressed.  A  missionary  who  had  not 
fully  mastered  the  language,  in  offering  prayer,  asked  God 
to  pardon  ko  kakou  lawehala,  our  sins,  including  those  of 
the  One  addressed,  when  he  should  have  used  the  words, 
ko  makou  lawehala,  our  sins,  exclusive  of  any  reference  to 
the  Being  addressed.  Negation  is  conveniently  expressed 
in  the  Polynesian  languages  by  the  suffix  ole,  not.  Thus, 
in  Hawaii,  wanvat,  water,  or  rich,  is  changed  to  waiwaw/e, 
without  water  or,  poor.  *  By  this  method  the  missionaries 
in  Tahiti  coined  the  singular  word  paiitiole,  meaning  with- 
out piety.  The  Polynesian  languages  express  causation 
by  a  prefix,  like  the  Hebrew  hiphil  and  hophal.  Thus,  in 
Hawaii,  maikai,  good,  is  changed  to  hoomaikai,  to  make 
good,  to  bless  ;  manawa  nut,  much  time,  to  hoomanawanui, 
to  prolong  time,  to  be  patient  ;  lana,  to  swim,  to  hoolana, 
to  cause  to  swim,  to  hope.  Through  the  idea  of  this 
last  word  the  noun  for  hope  is  manaolana,  the  swimming 
thought.  When  all  other  thoughts  sink  this  floats. 

The  forms  of  the  Polynesian  words  change  by  regular 
laws  from  group  to  group  ;  so  that  if  a  word  is  given 
in  the  language  of  one  group  it  can  often  be  determined 

*  The  value  of  water  for  irrigation  caused  it  to  be  made  a 
symbol  of  wealth.     A  poor  man  was  one  who  had  no  water. 


APPENDIX   A.  499 

what  it  would  be  in  the  language  of  another.  These 
changes  have  consisted  in  dropping  letters  and  abbrevi- 
ating words  till  in  Hawaii  only  fourteen  letters  were 
needed  to  spell  all  Hawaiian  words ;  a  change  which 
perhaps  may  be  attributed  to  the  disposition  of  the 
people,  while  leading  a  listless,  indolent  life  in  the  Trop- 
ics, to  express  their  few  ideas  with  brief  words  and  soft 
vowel  sounds. 

As  has  been  mentioned  in  the  foregoing  chapters, 
the  Hawaiian  language  remarkably  resembles  that  of 
New  Zealand,  while  the  languages  of  some  of  the  inter- 
mediate groups  have  many  words  that  are  not  found  in 
Hawaii  or  New  Zealand.  It  has  been  inferred  that  Pa- 
puans and  other  races  invaded  some  of  the  immediate 
islands,  and  changed  their  languages,  but  did  not  reach 
Hawaii  or  New  Zealand  to  cause  similar  changes  there. 
By  careful  examination  of  these  changes  we  may  ascer- 
tain with  what  races  the  first  emigrants  to  the  Pacific  in- 
termingled and  by  what  routes  they  went  to  their  various 
islands.  By  comparison  of  their  languages  with  those 
of  islands  further  west  and  of  Asia  we  also  discover  the 
affinities  of  the  Pacific  islanders  to  the  people  of  Mada- 
gascar and  of  the  Malay  Peninsula.  It  has  been  in- 
ferred, from  the  absence  of  Sanscrit  words  in  these  lan- 
guages, that  the  emigration  of  the  ancestors  of  these 
islanders  from  Asia  occurred  before  the  Malay  language 
had  been  changed  by  the  invaders  who  spoke  the  Sans- 
crit language.  It  is  therefore  supposed  that  the  first 
Polynesians  emigrated  from  Asia  at  least  500  years  be- 
fore the  time  of  Christ. 


500 


THE   ISLANDS   OF   THE   PACIFIC. 


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APPENDIX    B.  501 

APPENDIX  B. 


SPECIMENS  OF  THE  LANGUAGES  OF  THE 
PACIFIC  ISLANDERS. 

JOHN    3:l6    IN    DIFFERENT    LANGUAGES. 

Pronunciation :  a  as  in  father,  e  as  ey  in  they,  i  as  in  marine, 
o  as  in  note,  u  as  in  rule. 

HAWAII.  No  ka  mea,  ua  aloha  nui  mai  ke  Akua  i  ko 
ke  ao  nei,  nolaila,  ua  haawi  mai  oia  i  kana  Keiki 
hiwahiwa,  i  ole  e  make  ka  mea  manaoio  ia  ia, 
aka  e  loaa  ia  ia  ke  ola  mau  loa. 

TAHITI.  I  aroha  mai  te  Atua  i  to  te  ao,  e  ua  tae  roa  i 
te  horoa  mai  i  ta'na  Tamaiti  fanau  tahi,  ia  ore 
ia  pohe  te  faaroo  ia'na  ra,  ia  roaa  ra  te  ora  mure 
ore. 

MARQUESAS.  Ua  kaoha  nui  mai  te  Atua  i  to  te  aomaa- 
ma  nei,  noeia,  ua  tuu  mai  oia  i  taia  Tama  fanuata- 
hi,  ia  mate  koe  te  enata  i  haatia  ia  ia,  atia  ia  koaa 
ia  ia  ti  pohoe  mau  ana'tu. 

RAROTONGA.  I  aroa  mai  te  Atua  i  to  te  ao  nei,  kua  tae 
rava  ki  te  oronga  anga  mai  i  tana  Tamaiti  anau 
tai,  kia  kore  e  mate  te  akarongo  iaia,  kia  rauka 
ra  te  ora  mutu  kore. 

SAMOA.  Aua  ua  faapea  lava  ona  alofa  mai  o  le  Atua 
i  le  lalolagi,  ua  ia  au  mai  ai  lona  Atalii  e  toatasi, 
ina  ia  le  fano  se  tasi  e  faatuatua  ia  te  ia,  a  ia 
maua  e  ia  le  ola  e  faavavau. 


502  THE    ISLANDS   OF  THE   PACIFIC.    ' 

TONGA.  He  nae  ofa  behe  ae  Otua  ki  mama  ni,  naa  ne 
foaki  hono  Alo  be  taha  nae  fakatubu,  koeuhi  ko 
ia  kotoabe  e  tui  kiate  ia  ke  oua  naa  auha,  kae 
mau  e  moui  taegata. 

MAORI.  Na,  koia  ano  te  aroha  o  te  Atua  ki  te  ao, 
homai  ana  e  ia  tana  Tamaiti  ko  tahi,  kia  kahore 
ai  e  mate  te  tangata  e  whakapono  ana  ki  a  ia, 
engari  kia  whiwhi  ai  ki  te  oranga  tonutanga. 

FIJI.  Ni  sa  lomani  ira  vaka  ko  na  Kalou  na  kai  vuravura, 
me  solia  kina  na  Luvena  e  dua  bauga  sa  vakasikavi, 
me  kakua  ni  rusa  ko  ira  yadua  sa  vakabauti  koya, 
me  ra  rawata  ga  na  bula  tawa  mudu. 

ANEITYUM.  Is  um  ucce  naiheuc  vai  iji  asega  o  Atua  is 
abrai  Jnhal  o  un  is  eti  ache  aien,  va  eri  eti 
emesmas  a  ilpu  atimi  asgeig  iran  asega,  jam  leh 
nitai  umoh  iran  ineig  inyi  ti  lep  ti. 

ERROMANGA.  Muve  kimi  mo,  mumpi  ovun  nurie  enyx, 
6vun  numpun  16  su,  wumbaptiso  iranda  ra  nin 
eni  Itemen,  im  ra  nin  eni  Netni,  im  ra  nin  eni 
Naviat  Tumpora. 

FATE.  Leatu  ki  nrum  emeromina  nin,  tewan  kin  kt 
tubulua  Nain  iskeimau  i  mai,  nag  sernatamol  nag 
ru  seralesok  os  ruk  fo  tu  mat  mou,  me  ruk  fo 
biatlaka  nagmolien  nag  i  tok  kai  mou  tok. 

GILBERT  ISLANDS.  Ba  e  bad  taniran  te  aomata  iroun 
te  Atua,  ma  naia  are  e  ana  Natina  ae  te  rikitei 
mana,  ba  e  aona  n  aki  mate  ane  onimakina,  ma 
e  na  maiu  n  aki  toki. 

MARSHALL  ISLANDS.  Bwe  an  Anij  yokwe  lol,  einvot 
bwe  E  ar  letok  juon  wot  Nejin  E  ar  keutak,  bwe 


APPENDIX    B.  503 

jabrewot  eo  ej  tomak  kin  E  e  jamin  joko,  a  e  naj 

mour  in  drio. 
KUSAIE.     Tu  God  el  lunsel  fwalu  ou  ini,  tu  el  kitamu 

Mwen  siewunu  isusla  natal,  tu  met  e  nu  kemwu 

su  lalalfuni  ki'el  elos  tiu  mise,  a  mol  lalos  mapat- 

pat. 
PONAPE.     Pue  kot  me  kupura  jappa  ie  me  aki  to  ki  Na 

ieroj  eu.  pue  me  pojon  la  i,  en  ter  me  la,  a  en 

me  maur  jo  tuk. 
MORTLOCK  ISLANDS.     Pue  an  kot  a  tane  fanufan  mi  rapur, 

ie   mi  a  nanai  na  an  Alaman,   pue  monison  mi 

luku  i  ra  te  pait  mual  la,  pue  ra  pu  uera  i  manau 

samur. 


APPENDIX  C. 


NAMES  OF  MISSIONARIES  IN  THE  ISLANDS 
OF  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN. 

TAHITI  AND  THE  SOCIETY  ISLANDS. 

PROMINENT    L.    M.    S.     MISSIONARIES. 

NAME.  DATE.  SERVICE. 

Nott,  Henry 1796 1844  48  years. 

Henry,  William 1796 1842  46  " 

Davies,  John 1800 1855  55  " 

Barff,  Chas -1816 1864  48  " 

Platt,  Geo 1816 1865  49  " 

Williams,  John 1818 1839  21  " 

Pritchard,  George 1824 1827  13  " 

Simpson,  Alexander 1827 1850  23  " 

Stallworthy,  George 1833 1844  u  " 

—^       Howe,  William 1838.- 1863  25  " 

/       Joseph,  Thomas 1838 1848  10  " 

Barff,  John 1841 1860  19  " 

Chisholm,  Alexander 1842 1862  20  " 

Krause,  Ernest  R.  W 1842 1855  13  " 

Green,  James  Lampard 1860 1887  27  " 

Viviati,  James  Clarke 1863 1874  n  " 

Saville,  Alfred  Thomas 1866 1878  12  " 

Peaise,  Albert 1869 1884  15  " 

Cooper,  Eben  V 1880 1891  11  " 

Richards,  Wall  D 1884 1887  3  " 

MISSIONARIES    OF    THE     ' '  SOCIETE    DES    MISSIONS    EVANGEL- 
IQUES,"     PARIS,    FRANCE. 

Rev.  Arbousset,  formerly  labored  in  Tahiti  and  Moorea. 
"    Alger, 
"     Girard, 
"    Vernier,  still  laboring  (1895)  "  " 


APPENDIX   C. 

Rev.  Vienot,  formerly  laboring  in  Tahiti  and  Moorea. 
"     Brun, 

"    de  Pomares,         " 
"     Brunei,  "  Raiatea. 

"     Langereau,  Mare. 

EUROPEAN    SCHOOL    TEACHERS. 

Mons.  and  Madame  Allard Still  laboring  (1895). 

Mesdemoiselles  de  Verbizier " 

"  Bauzet  and  Bohin  _        "  " 

"                Abry  and  Villemejane   " 
Mons.  and  Madame  Ahune " 

THE   HAWAIIAN   ISLANDS. 

MISSIONARIES    OF   THE    A.    B.    C.    F.    M. 

NAME.  EMBARKED.  RETIRED  OR  DIED. 

Bingham,  Rev.  Hiram Oct.  23,  1819.  Feb.  4,  1841. 

Bingham,  Mrs.  (Sybil  Moseley) " 

Thurston,  Rev.  Asa "  Mar.  n,  1868. 

Thurston,  Mrs.  (Lucy  Goodale) "  Oct.  13,  1876. 

Whitney,  Rev.  Samuel "  Dec.  15,  1845. 

Whitney,  Mrs.  (Mercy  Partridge)--        "  Dec.  26,  1872. 

Holman,  Thomas,  M.  D. "  July  30,  1820. 

Holman,  Mrs.  (Lucia  Ruggles) "  " 

Chamberlain,  Daniel,  a  farmer "  Mar.  21,  1823. 

Chamberlain,  Mrs, "  Died. 

Ruggles,  Samuel,  a  schoolmaster  __        "  Jan.,  1834. 

Ruggles,  Mrs.  (Nancy  Wills) "  Died. 

Loomis,  Elisha,  printer "  1837. 

Loomis,  Mrs.  (Maria  T.  Sartwell)--        " 

Bishop,  Rev.  Artemas Nov.  19,  1822.  Dec.  18,  1872. 

Bishop,  Mrs.  (Eliza  Edwards) "  Feb.  21,  1828. 

Bishop,  Mrs.  (Delia  Stone) Nov  3,  1829.  April  13,  1875. 

Richards,  Rev.  William Nov.  19,  1822.  Nov.  7,  1847. 

Richards,  Mrs.  (Clarissa  Lyman)  __        "  1860. 

Stewart,  Rev.  Charles  S "  Oct.  15,  1825. 

Stewart,  Mrs.  (Harriet  B.  Tiffany)  _        "  " 

Ely,  Rev.  James 

Ely,  Mrs.  (Louisa  Everest) "  " 

Goodrich,  Rev.  Joseph "  May  22,  1836. 

Goodrich,  Mrs "  " 


APPENDIX  C. 

NAME.  EMBARKED.  RETIRED  OR  DIED. 

Blatchley,  Abraham Nov.  19,  1822.      1826. 

Blatchley,  Mrs.  (Jemima  Marvin)--  " 

Chamberlain,  Levi "  July  29,  1849. 

Chamberlain,  Mrs.  (Maria  Patten)_Nov.  3,  1827.       Jan.  19,  1880. 
/  Andrews,  Rev.  Lorrin Nov.  19,  1822.     Sept.  29,  1868. 

Andrews,  Mrs.  (Wilson) " 

/  Clark,  Rev.  Ephraim  Weston " 

Clark,  Mrs.  (Mary  Kittredge) "  Aug.  14,  1857. 

Green,  Rev.  Jonathan  S "  1842. 

Green,  Mrs.  (Theodosia  Arnold)___  "  " 

'    Gulick,  Rev.  Peter  Johnson "  1874. 

Gulick,  Mrs.  (Fanny  H.  Thomas)—  "  " 

<   Judd,  Gerrit  Parmelee,  M.  D "  1842. 

Judd,  Mrs.  (Laura  Fish) "  " 

Shepard,  Stephen,  printer "  1834. 

Shepard,  Mrs.  (Margaret  C.  Stone).  " 

,    Ogden,  Miss  Maria  C "  April  3,  1874. 

,   Baldwin,  Rev.  Dwight Dec.  28,  1830.      1886. 

Baldwin,  Mrs.  (Charlotte  Fowler). _  "  Oct.  2,  1873. 

^  Dibble,  Rev.  Sheldon "  Jan.  22,  1845. 

Dibble,  Mrs.  (Maria  Tomlinson)—  "  Feb.  20,  1837. 

Dibble,  Mrs.  (Antoinette  Tomlinson)  "  April  12,  1848. 

-    Tinker,  Rev.  Reuben "  1840. 

Tinker,  Mrs.  (Mary  Throop  Wood)  "  " 

,    Johnstone,  Andrew,  teacher "  April  22,1836. 

Johnstone,  Mrs "  " 

Alexander,  Rev.  Wm.  Patterson Nov.  26,  1831.     Aug.  12,  1884. 

Alexander,  Mrs. 

(Mary  Ann  McKinney)—  "  June  29,  1888. 

/  Armstrong,  Rev.  Richard "  1860. 

Armstrong,  Mrs. 

(Clarissa  Chapman).-  "  July  20,  1891. 

,    Emerson,  Rev.  John "  Mar.  23,  1867. 

Emerson,  Mrs. 

(Ursula  Sophia  Newell)..  "  Nov.  24,  1888. 

,    Forbes,  Rev.  Cochran "  April  2,  1848. 

Forbes,  Mrs.  (Rebecca  D.  Smith).-  "  " 

,   Hitchcock,  Rev.  Harvey  Rexford..  "  Aug.  29,  1855. 

Hitchcock,  Mrs.  (Rebecca  Howard)  "  May  10,  1890. 

/  Lyons,  Rev.  Lorenzo "  1886. 

Lyons,  Mrs.  (Betsey  Curtis) "  May  14,  1837. 


APPENDIX   C. 

Lyons,  Mrs.  (Lucia  G.  Smith) July  14,  1838.       April  27,  1892. 

+  Lyman,  Rev.  David  Belden Nov.  26,  1831.      1884. 

Lyman,  Mrs.  (Sarah  Joiner) "  1886. 

Spaulding,  Rev.  Ephraim "  Dec.  26,  1836. 

Spaulding,  Mrs.  (Julia  Brooks) "  " 

Chapin,  Alonzo,  M.  D. "  Mar.  14,  1837. 

Chapin,  Mrs.  (Mary  Ann  Tenney)  _        " 

,    Rogers,  Edmund,  printer "  Dec.  i,  1853. 

Rogers,  Mrs.  (Mary  Ward) "  May  23,  1834. 

Rogers,  Mrs.  (Elizabeth  Hitchcock)        "  Aug.  2,  1857. 
,    Parker,  Rev.  Benjamin  Wyman  __-Nov.  21,  1832.     Mar.  23,  1877. 

Parker,  Mrs. 

(Mary  Elizabeth  Barker) __ 

,    Smith,  Rev.  Lowell "  May,  1891. 

Smith,  Mrs.  (Abba  W.  Tenney) "  Jan.  31,  1885. 

Fuller,  Lemuel,  printer "  1834. 

^   Coan,  Rev.  Titus Dec.  5,  1834.        1883. 

Coan,  Mrs.  (Fidelia  Church) "  Sept.  29,  1872. 

Coan,  Mrs.  (Elizabeth  Bingham) — 

Dimond,  Henry,  bookbinder "  1894. 

Dimond,  Mrs.  (Ann  Maria  Anner)  _        " 

,    Hall,  Edwin  Oscar "  1850. 

Hall,  Mrs.  (Sarah  Lynn  Williams)  _        " 

Brown,  Miss  Lydia "  1869. 

s  Bliss,  Rev.  Isaac Dec.  14,  1836.      Dec.  2,  1841. 

Bliss,  Mrs.  (Emily  Curtis) 

^  Conde,  Rev.  Daniel  Toll "  Mar.  18,  1857. 

Conde,  Mrs.  (Andelusia  Lee) "  Mar.  30,  1855. 

.,  Ives,  Rev.  Mark "  1851. 

Ives,  Mrs.  (Mary  Anna  Brainerd)--        "  • 

,    Lafon,  Thomas,  M.  D "  June  22,  1841. 

Lafon,  Mrs.  (Sophia  Louisa  Barker)        " 

Johnson,  Rev.  Edward "  Sept.  i,  1867. 

Johnson,  Mrs.  (Lois  S.  Hoyt) "  Jan.  17,  1891. 

,    Andrews,  Seth  Lathrop,  M.  D "  May  u,  1849. 

Andrews,  Mrs.  (Parmelly  Pierce)  —        "  " 

,    Bailey,  Edward,  teacher " 

Bailey,  Mrs.  (Caroline  Hubbard)___        "  June  10,  1894. 

Castle,  Samuel  Northrup "  1850. 

Castle,  Mrs.  (Angeline  L.  Tenney)-        "  Mar.  5,  1841. 

Castle,  Mrs.  (Mary  Tenney) Nov.  2,  1842. 

/  Cooke,  Amos  Starr,  teacher Dec.  14,  1836.      1850. 


APPENDIX    C. 

NAME.  EMBARKED.  RETIRED  OR  DIED. 

Cooke,  Mrs.  (Juliette  Montague).— Dec.  14,  1836.      1850. 

Knapp,  Horton  Owen "  Mar.  28,  1845. 

Knapp,  Mrs.  (Charlotte  Close) " 

Locke,  Edwin,  teacher "  001.28,1843. 

Locke,  Mrs. 

(Martha  Laurens  Rowell)—        " 

McDonald,  Charles "  Sept.  7,  1839. 

.McDonald,  Mrs. 

(Harriet  T.  Halstead)__ 

Munn,  Bethuel,  teacher "  April,  1842. 

Munn,  Mrs.  (Louisa  Clark) " 

Van  Duzee,  William  Sanford "  1840. 

Van  Duzee,  Mrs.  (Oral  Hobart)  __. 

Wilcox,  Abner,  teacher "  Aug.  20,  1869. 

Wilcox,  Mrs.  (Lucy  Eliza  Hart)  -  Aug.  13,  1869. 

Smith,  Miss  Marcia  Maria "  June  6,  1854. 

Dole,  Rev.  Daniel Nov.  14,  1840.     1878. 

Dole,  Mrs.  (Emily  H.  Ballard) "  April  27,  1844. 

Dole,  Mrs.  (Charlotte  Close  Knapp) -Dec.  14,  1836.     June  5.  1874. 

Bond,  Rev.  Elias Nov.  14,  1840. 

Bond,  Mrs.  (Ellen  Mariner  Howell)          "  May  12,  1881. 

Paris,  Rev.  John  D "  July  28,  1892. 

Paris,  Mrs.  (Mary  Grant) "  Feb.  18,  1847. 

Paris,  Mrs.  (Mary  Carpenter) Nov.  18,  1851. 

Rice,  William  Harrison,  teacher Nov.  14,  1840.      1863. 

Rice,  Mrs.  (Mary  Sophia  Hyde)  __. 

Smith,  Rev.  James  W.,  M.  D May  2,  1842.        Nov.  30,  1887. 

Smith,  Mrs.  (Mellicent  K.) "  Sept.  24,  1891. 

Rowell,  Rev.  George  B. "  1865. 

Rowell,  Mrs.  (MalvinaJ.  Chapin).- 

Smith;  Rev.  Asa  Bowen "  1846. 

Smith,  Mrs.  (Sarah  Gilbert  WTlrite).        " 

Whittlesey,  Rev.  Eliphalet Dec.  4,  1843.        1854. 

Whittlesey,  Mrs. 

(Elizabeth  Keene  Baldwin)--         " 

Hunt,  Rev.  Timothy  Dwight "  *       1848. 

Hunt,  Mrs.  (Mary  Hedge) " 

Pogue,  Rev.  John  Fawcett "  Dec.  4,  1877. 

Pogue,  Mrs.  (Maria  K.  Whitney)  _„ 

Andrews,  Rev.  Claudius  Buchanan.        "  April  4,  1877. 


APPENDIX   C. 

NAME.  EMBARKED.  RETIRED  OR  DIED. 

Andrews,  Mrs. 

(Anna  Seward  Gilson)__        "  Jan.  27,  1862. 

Andrews,  Mrs.  (Miss  Gilson) " 

Dwight,  Rev.  Samuel  Gelston Oct.  23,  1847.       Sept.  26,  1854. 

Kinney,  Rev.  Henry "  Sept.  24,  1854. 

Kinney,  Mrs. 

(Maria  Louisa  Walsworth)        "  " 

Wetmore,  Charles  Hinckley,  M.D._        "  001.16,1848. 

Wetmore,  Mrs. 

(Lucy  Sheldon  Taylor).-        "  July,  1883. 

Shipman,  Rev.  William  Cornelius  -June  4,  1854.       Dec.  21,  1861. 

Shipman,  Mrs.  (Jane  Stobie) " 

Baldwin,  Rev.  William  Otis Nov.  28,  1854.     April  26,  1860. 

Baldwin,  Mrs.  (Mary  Proctor) "  " 

Forbes,  Rev.  Anderson  Oliver 1858.  Aug.  8.  1888. 

Forbes,  Mrs.  (Maria  Patten) " 

Gulick,  Rev.  Luther  Halsey,  M.  D.-i862.  1870. 

Gulick,  Mrs.  (Louisa  Lewis) "  " 

Gulick,  Rev.  Orramel  H "  " 

Gulick,  Mrs.  (Ann  Eliza  Clark)..-     " 

Bishop,  Rev.  Sereno  Edwards "  " 

Bishop,  Mrs.  (C.  Sessions) "    • 

Parker,  Rev.  Henry  H. June  28,  1863. 

Hyde,  Rev.  Charles  M.,  D.  D. 1877. 

Hyde,  Mrs.  (Mary  Knight) " 

THE  HERVEY  ISLANDS. 

PROMINENT    L.    M.    S.    MISSIONARIES. 

NAME.  ,  DATE.  SERVICE. 

Williams,  John 1818 1839  21  years. 

Pitman,  Charles 1124 1855  31  " 

Buzacott,  Aaron 1827 1857  30  " 

Royle,  Henry 1838 1876  38  " 

Gill,  William 1838 1856  18      " 

Krause,  E.  R.  W. 1859 1870  n  " 

Chalmers,  James 1866 1877  ll  " 

Harris,  George  Alfred 1870 1894  24  " 

Hutchin,  John  J.  K. 1882 1894  12 

Lawrence,  William  M 1883 1894  n  " 

Ardill,  Miss --1893 1894  i  " 


APPENDIX   C. 
THE  SAMOAN  ISLANDS. 

PROMINENT    L.    M.    S.    MISSIONARIES. 

NAME.                                                   DATE.  SERVICE. 

Murray,  A.  W 1835 1875  40  years 

Hardie,  Charles 1835 1856  21  " 

Pratt,  George 1838 1879  4*  " 

Harbutt,  William 1839 1862  23  " 

Drummond,  George 1839 l&73  34  " 

Nisbet,  Henry,  LL.  D. 1840 1876  36  " 

Turner,  George 1840 1882  42  " 

Powell,  Thomas 1844 1887  43  " 

Stallworthy,  George 1844 1859  15  " 

Sunderland,  James  P. 1844 1856  12  " 

Ella,  Samuel 1847 1876  29  " 

Gee,  Henry 1859 1868  9  " 

King,  Joseph 1863 1874  ll  " 

Whitmee,  Samuel  J 1863 1878  18  " 

Davies,  Samuel  H 1866 1894  28  " 

Turner,  George,  M.  D 1868 1881  13  " 

Marriott,  John 1878 1894  16  " 

Newell,  James  Ed 1880 1894  14  " 

Clarke,  W.  E 1882 1894  12  " 

Claxton,  Arthur  E 1885 1894  9  " 

Schultze,  Miss. 
Moore,          " 
Large, 

Gouards,      " 
Hills, 
Hunns,         " 

THE  LOYALTY  ISLANDS. 

PROMINENT    L.    M.    S.    MISSIONARIES. 

NAME.                                                   DATE.  SERVICE. 

Jones,  John 1853 1887  34  years. 

Creagh,  S.  M 1853 1892  39  '< 

McFarlane,  Samuel 1859 1871  12  " 

Sleigh,  James 1862 1888  26  " 

Ella,  Samuel 1864 1876  12  " 

Hadfiemd,  James  ...    1878 1894  16  " 


APPENDIX   C. 
NIUE. 

NAME.  DATE.  SERVICE. 

Lawes,  W.  G 1860 1894    34  years. 

Lawes,  F.  E 1867- 1894    27       " 


NEW  HEBRIDES. 

MISSIONARIES    OF   PRESBYTERIAN    SOCIETIES. 

NAME.  DATE.  SERVICE. 

Turner  and  Nisbet 1842.  7  months 

Geddie,  Rev.  John Nov.  30,  1846.     July  18,  1872. 

Inglis,  Rev.  John July  i,  1852.         1877. 

Murray,  Rev.  James  D 1872.  1876. 

Annand,  Rev.  Joseph 1873. 

Goedon,  Rev.  George  N. 1857.  May  20,  1844. 

Matheson,  Rev.  J.  W 1858.  Mar.  n,  1862. 

Johnston,  Rev.  Samuel June  18,  1860.     Jan.  21,  1861. 

Copeland,  Rev.  J 1858. 

Watt,  Rev.  William 1869. 

Milne,  Rev.  Peter 1869. 

Morrison,  Rev.  Donald June,  1865.  Oct.  23,  1869. 

Gordon,  Rev.  James  D. 1864.  1872. 

Robertson,  Rev.  H.  A. 1872. 

McNair,  Rev.  James 1866  July  16,  1870. 

Mackenzie,  J.  W. 1872.  April  30,  1893. 

Macdonald,  Rev.  D._ 1872. 

Michelsen,  Rev.  Oscar 1878. 

Lawrie,  Rev.  J.  H.._ 1879. 

Eraser,  Rev.  R.  M. 1882. 

Gray,  Rev.  William 1882. 

Gunn,  William,  M.  D 1883. 

Landels,  Rev.  J.  D 1886. 

Leggatt,  Rev.  T.  W. 1886. 

Gillan,  John 1889. 

Smaill,  Rev.  T. 1889. 

Macdonald,  Rev.  A.  H 1888. 

Goodwill,  Rev.  J April  30,  1893. 


APPENDIX   C. 


MICRONESIA. 

MISSIONARIES    OF    THE    A.    J.    C.    F.    M. 

NAME.  EMBARKED.  RETURNED  OR  DIED. 

Snow,  Rev.  Benjamin  Galen Nov.  18,  1851.     March  i,  1880. 

Snow,  Mrs.  (Lydia  Vose  Buck) "  July  n,  1882. 

Gulick,  Rev.  Luther  Halsey,  M.  D._        "  1862. 

Gulick,  Mrs.  (Louisa  Lewis) 

Sturges,  Rev.  Albert  A. Jan.  17,  1852.       1885. 

Sturges,  Mrs. 

(Susan  Mary  Thompson)-.        "  1881. 

Doane,  Rev.  Edward  Toppin June  4,  1854.       May  15,  1890. 

Doane,  Mrs.  (Sarah  Wells  Wilbur )_  Feb.  16,  1862. 

Doane,  Mrs.  (Clara  Hale  Strong)  --May  20,  1865.      1872. 

Pierson,  Rev.  George,  M.  D. Nov.  28,  1854.      1860. 

Pierson,  Mrs. 

(Nancy  Annette  Shaw)_- 

Bingham,  Rev.  Hiram,  Jr. Dec.  2,  1856. 

Bingham,  Mrs. 

(Minerva  Clarissa  Brewster)-- 

Roberts,  Rev.  Ephraim  Peter Oct.  30,  1857.       July  30,  1861. 

Roberts,  Mrs. 

(Myra  Holman  Farrington)--        " 

Whitney,  Rev.  Joel  Fisk June  23,  1871.      April  18,  1881. 

Whitney,  Mrs. 

(Louisa  Maretta  Bailey) _. 

Taylor,  Rev.  Horace  Judson July  11,  1874.       1882. 

Taylor,  Mrs.  (Julia  Ann  Rudd)  —  _.        "  Sept.  26,  1874. 

Taylor,  Mrs.  (Jennie  Rudd) May  8,  1880.        June  2,  1881. 

Logan,  Rev.  Robert  William June  20,  1874      Dec.  27,  1887. 

Logan,  Mrs.  (Mary  Elvira  Fenn)  _-  1894. 

Rand,  Rev.  Frank  E. June  20,  1874.         " 

Rand,  Mrs.  (Carrie  F.  Foss)- 

Pease,  Rev.  Edmund  Morris May  23,  1877. 

Pease,  Mrs. 

(Harriet  Almira  Sturtevant)--         " 
Walkup,  Rev.  Alfred  Christopher  -June  5,  1880. 
\Valkup,  Mrs.  (Margaret  L.  Barr)  _         "  Aug.  18,  1888. 

Houston,  Rev.  Albert  Sturges May  6.  1882.        1883. 

Houston,  Mrs. 

(Elizabeth  Moffit  Danskin)-- 


APPENDIX   C. 

NAME.  EMBARKED.  RETIRED  OR  DIED. 

Price,  Rev.  Francis  M. May  6,  1882.        1883. 

Price,  Mrs.  (Sarah  Jane  Freeborn)-         " 

Trieber,  Daniel  J June  21,  1887.      April  2,  1889. 

Trieber,  Mrs. 

(Rose  Ellen  Standish)__ 

Snelling,  Rev.  Alfred July  i,  1888. 

Sneliing,  Mrs. 

(Elizabeth  Maria  Heymer)__July  19,  1889. 

Forbes,  Rev.  John  James July  19,  1889.       Oct.  29,  1889. 

Forbes,  Mrs.  (Rachel  Crawford)--  1894. 

Channon,  Rev.  Irving  Monroe June  28,  1890. 

Channon,  Mrs. 

(Mary  Long  Goldsburg)—        " 

Cathcart,  Miss  Lillie  Sophia June  4,  1881.        1887. 

Fletcher,  Miss  Jennie  Estella May  6,  1882. 

Palmer,  Miss  Annette  Augusta June  2,  1884. 

Crosby,  Miss  Ellen  Theodora June,  1886. 

Smith,  Miss  Sarah  Louise "  Sept.  3,  1886. 

Married  Capt.  Garland  of  the  "  Morning  Star." 
Hemingway,  Miss  Lydia  Esther  ...June  i,  1886.  1887. 
Ingersoll,  Miss  Lucy  Merrill,  M.  D.  .April  1887.  Feb.  22,  1890. 

Little,  Miss  Alice  Cowles June  10,  1888. 

Foss,  Miss  Ida  Cressey June  28,  1890. 

Kinney,  Miss  Rosetta  Matthews  .. 

Hoppin,  Miss  Jessie  Rebecca—    --May  13,  1890. 

Abell,  Miss  Annie  Elizabeth--.    .^-June  28,  1892. 

Rife,  Clinton  F.,  M.  D ...June  28,  1894. 

Rife,  Mrs.  (Isadora) - 


514  THE   ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC. 


APPENDIX  D. 


ISLANDS   OF  THE  PACIFIC  APPROPRIATED 
BY  EUROPEAN  NATIONS. 

THE  following  statements  are  taken  from  an  article 
on  the  "  Future  of  the  Pacific  "  published  by  Hon.  Lorin 
Thurston  in  the  April  number  of  the  "North  American 
Review. " 

In  the  sixteenth  century  Spain  took  possession  of  the 
Philippine  and  Ladrone  Islands.  About  one  hundred 
years  ago  England  appropriated  Australia,  and  in  the 
early  part  of  this  century  New  Zealand.  In  1842  France 
raised  her  flag  over  the  Marquesas  group,  and  in  1853 
over  New  Caledonia  and  the  Loyalty  group.  In  1874 
England  took  possession  of  the  250  islands  of  the  Fiji 
group.  In  1880  France  usurped  dominion  over  the 
Paumotu  and  Society  Islands,  comprising  thirty-six  in- 
habited islands.  In  1881  England  annexed  Rotumah. 
In  1885  Spain  took  possession  of  the  Caroline  Islands; 
and  Germany  took  the  Marshall,  the  Solomon,  and  the 
Admiralty  groups  ;  and  England,  Germany,  and  Holland 
partitioned  New  Guinea  between  themselves.  This 
is  1,500  miles  long,  400  wide,  and  contains  over  300,000 
square  miles.  In  1888  England  took  possession  of  the 
Gilbert,  Ellice,  Enderbury  and  Union  groups,  containing 
twenty-six  inhabited  islands,  and  the  following  single 


APPENDIX   D.  515 

islands  :  Kingman,  Fanning,  Washington,  Christmas,  Jar- 
vis,  Maiden,  Starbuck,  Dudosa,  and  Nuie ;  and  in  1889, 
1891  and  1892  Suwaroff,  Coral,  Gardner,  and  Danger 
Islands.  Thus  Hawaii  and  Samoa  are  the  only  unap- 
propriated islands  of  the  Pacific  ;  the  latter  hardly  to  be 
called  unappropriated  while  under  the  tripartite  sove- 
reignty of  England,  Germany,  and  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Thurston  remarks  :  "  Prophesying  is  dangerous 
and  uncertain  business  ;  but  it  seems  altogether  proba- 
ble that  within  ten  or  fifteen  years  the  railroad  from  St. 
Petersburg  to  Vladivostok  will  have  been  completed,  and 
that  steamships  will  radiate  from  the  latter  point  to  Van- 
couver, San  Francisco,  the  Nicaragua  Canal,  and  the 
southern  nations.  The  railroad  system  of  North  Ameri- 
ca will  have  been  extended  to  Alaska  on  the  north,  and 
to  Chili  on  the  south.  The  Nicaragua  Canal  will  have 
been  constructed,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  com- 
merce which  now  pours  through  the  Suez  Canal  will  have 
been  diverted  to  its  American  rival.  Honolulu  will  be 
the  centre  of  a  cable  system,  radiating  to  Tahiti,  Austra- 
lia, Japan,  Vancouver,  and  San  Francisco  ;  while  between 
all  the  main  ports  of  the  Pacific  steamers  of  the  size  and 
speed  of  those  now  plying  between  New  York  and  Eur- 
ope will  be  in  use.  The  Pacific  has  already  made  giant 
strides  of  progress  ;  but  it  is  yet  only  upon  the  threshold 
of  the  destiny  which  looms  before  it." 


14  DAY  USE 

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LOAN  DEPT. 

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